At a ministers meeting of the Birmingham Baptist Association April 8, Thomas E. Corts, president of Samford University, addressed the need for state constitutional reform.
“In 1983, I began raising questions about the constitution because I went to the polls and was voting on things related to other counties that I knew nothing about,” he said. “Almost everything in the state is done by the constitution, and it hasn’t been rewritten since 1901.”
After years of research and discussions with others interested in the issue, Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform was formed in 2000.
“The group thought I’d be a good person to head it because I wasn’t running for any office and I wasn’t being paid by the government,” he explained. “Samford gets no money from the state. In other words, I had no special interest in the issue.”
Since then, Corts said he’s been speaking across the state promoting constitutional reform.
“The 1901 constitution is basically the 1875 constitution,” he said. “It said the state cannot make any internal improvements, so basically, you can do nothing … unless an amendment is passed.”
“The current constitution has 707 amendments, making it the most amended and the longest constitution in the world,” Corts said. “Everything has to be routed through Montgomery. … All of this takes legislators’ eyes off the ball,” he explained. “That’s what’s wrong with a constitution that is wrongly based, and it just keeps muddling through.”
John B. Knox, chairman of the constitutional convention in 1901, explained his own purposes for writing the then-new constitution, Corts noted.
“He said, ‘Our purpose is not efficiency or effectiveness in state government; our purpose is to keep blacks and some poor whites from voting.’ These words are printed, and you can see them in books on Samford’s campus,” Corts said.
Still, many express opposition to rewriting the constitution.
“Some people say, ‘They’re liable to take God out of the document,’” Corts said. “But there’s nothing godly about this constitution, and God will not be diminished whether He’s in or out of the state constitution. Besides, I don’t think it could pass by the people if God is out of it.”
Others think the writers might “go wild when writing it,” Corts added. “But the one we have now doesn’t even require the approval of the people,” he explained. “Some people want the Legislature to [provide the new constitution] because you can influence the Legislature through money.”
Corts said Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform wants an amendment to be voted on that says however the new constitution comes about, it won’t pass until the people approve it. “We can even get a stronger prohibition against gambling in there.”
Corts is confident that if the people of Alabama are educated on the issue, most will want constitutional reform. Currently a grassroots contingency of at least 1,500 people across the state support the effort.
High-ranking state leaders — Gov. Don Siegelman, Lt. Gov. Steve Windom and Secretary of State Jim Bennett to name a few — have also decided to jump on board.
“Republicans and Democrats alike believe this is the best thing for Alabama,” Corts said.
Siegelman said he was happy to see the bipartisan support. He told a group of newspaper publishers and editors meeting in Mobile March 2 that he did not agree at first but now sees the importance of a rewrite. “It took the constitution making me cut funding for education to realize we need to change the constitution.”
Siegelman and Windom both express interest in moving the power of local legislation from Montgomery to the people in the areas the bills will affect.
Bennett said voters should be able to decide if they want the constitution changed and subsequently elect delegates charged with rewriting the document. “If you don’t trust the people, who do you trust?”
Corts mentioned the good job Alabama Baptists did in preventing the state lottery, and he said this would be a good time for Christians to be “pro-something.”
He noted that even though the Legislature during this year’s regular session failed to pass a bill calling for a vote to call a constitutional convention, it was only because “it came a lot faster than we thought.”
“We’ve got to have time to raise awareness,” he said. “This was not a setback. … We’re in it for the long haul.”
(Jennifer Rash contributed)
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