1. This week #50Weeks50Constitutions travels to Utah. The journey to statehood, & a state constitution, began in the 1840’s when members of the LDS church arrived and settled. But it took numerous constitutional conventions, and many petitions to Congress, to achieve.
2. They settled there with the hopes of creating a religious community, a break with the general western spirit of rugged individualism. They originally planned to petition to become a territory, but quickly realized that statehood would be much more beneficial.
3. In 1849, leaders of the community drafted a constitution for the “State of Deseret.” It was simple and short and contained strong protections of religious freedom for people of all beliefs. It set out the basic familiar form of government and was sent off to Congress. 
4. But Congress wasn’t interested. The debates over slavery doomed the chance for statehood. Instead, in the Compromise of 1850, Congress created the Utah territory which included the future state of Nevada and parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona.
5. President Fillmore appointed Brigham Young as the first governor while the people elected representatives to the bicameral territorial legislature. A vast majority of those in the territorial legislature in earlier years were members of the LDS church.
6. The Territorial Legislature was not content with just being a territory. It petitioned Congress to establish a constitutional convention in 1852, 1853, & 1854. But Congress rejected each request. So they decided to go it alone and established a convention in1856.
7. The 1856 Convention made minor edits to the Constitution for the State of Deseret, drafted in 1849. But Congress rejected it again. The same thing occurred in 1862, 1872, 1882, and 1887.
8. Finally, in 1894 Congress passed an Enabling Act, but conditioned admission on Utah banning polygamy forever. Polygamy was the main barrier to statehood & the federal government enacted many laws aimed at eliminating the practice & lessening the power of the LDS church.
9. The Act authorized another constitutional convention, and the people of Utah elected 107 delegates to the convention, of which 20% were not LDS.
10. Republicans controlled the convention with a 59-48 majority. The non-LDS delegates dominated the floor debates, despite being outnumbered. Much of the floor debates concerned suffrage, eminent domain, & economic issues dividing mining & agriculture.
11. There was considerable debate over how to limit eminent domain powers. Some argued that the constitution should define what would constitute a public use—but the delegates couldn’t agree on a definition, so they left it for future generations to fight over.
12. The delegates also adopted a “Blaine Amendment” which prohibited any aid to “sectarian” schools. The Supreme Court recently explained the sordid history of these Amendments in the context of IJ's Montana School Choice Lawsuit.
casetext.com/case/espinoza-…
casetext.com/case/espinoza-…
13. The delegates wanted to play it safe with this constitution. Statehood had been rejected too many times and they did not want to be rejected again. So they drew on other state constitutions and their own previous drafts and avoided anything too revolutionary.
14. This approach worked well and in January 1896 Utah officially became the 45th State. Utahns have continued to tinker with their Constitution over the years—but they rejected a chance to change it wholesale in 1966 when the legislature proposed a new convention.
15. Utah is one of the few western states which does not allow for amendments through initiative. Most amendments are recommended by the legislature, & approved by a majority vote of all voters in an election. Multiple referred amendments will be on the ballot this November.
16. One would change all gendered language to gender neutral language while the other would remove language from the Constitution that allows for slavery & involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.
17. The central feature of all state constitutions is change. State constitutions are more responsive to “the people,” (Utah’s has been amended over 100 times) and the people should pay more attention to their state’s constitution.
