Constitution of Utah - Unusual Provisions

Unusual Provisions

The original and current editions of the constitution have some unusual or unique provisions:

• Originally, a jury was to be eight people at most (unless for a trial of a person charged with a capital crime and seven for a grand jury, and four for inferior courts.
• Spousal privilege is protected by the constitution
• Voting machines (referred to as "mechanical contrivance") are allowed provided they be secret.
• Women's suffrage and equality is guaranteed in all matters.

• An ordinance was added which required the consent of the United States, as well as the state, to revoke or alter parts of the constitution. In part:
  • Besides the normal (And previously stated) freedom of religion, polygamy and "plural marriages" are "forever prohibited".
  • Public schooling is required and must be "free from sectarian control" - this is stated twice, once in the Ordinance, and once in Article X ("Education").
• Lotteries under any form are banned (despite the fact that one is needed to select the senatorial classes after the first election)
• Once an impeachable official is served a notice of impeachment, he or she automatically loses the powers of the office until acquitted.
• A two-thirds supermajority is required to specify the enactment of an act at a time other than the default.
• The Governor may call the both chambers of the Utah Legislature, or only the Utah State Senate, into extraordinary session, but not the House of Representatives alone.
• The Governor, Attorney General, and the Auditor comprise the Board of Prison Commissioners and Insane Asylum Commissioners, and with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Board of Reform School Commissioners.
• No Judge can appoint a relative closer than a cousin to his court.
• A judge out of state for more than 90 days running automatically loses his bench.
• An agricultural college must be supported by the state
• The Legislature and State Board of Education are forbidden from selecting the textbooks to be used.
• The schools of the state must teach the metric system, Article X § 11 (repealed ).
• Corporations running prior to the adoption of the constitution had to explicitly agree (by filing an affidavit with the Utah Secretary of State) to the new constitution.
• No one may bring an "armed ... bod of men" into the state without approval.
• Labor blacklisting is explicitly outlawed.
• Women are prohibited from working in mines
• Prison labor is prohibited outside of the prison, unless for public works projects
• Blacklists and their exchange are prohibited
• Eight hours is a full day for workers on public projects.
• Forests of the state get a one section article (XVIII) requiring they be preserved.
• Besides the state capitol, the location of the state fair, special schools, state prison, reform school, and insane asylum are explicitly set down, and "permanently located".
• When voting for or against the draft constitution, voters were to be given a ballot with both "yes" and "no". They then had to erase the word they disagreed with (tht is, erase "no" to vote "yes").