%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Colorado Constitution http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-constitution <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Colorado Constitution</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2020-03-13T16:01:03-06:00" title="Friday, March 13, 2020 - 16:01" class="datetime">Fri, 03/13/2020 - 16:01</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-constitution" data-a2a-title="Colorado Constitution"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcolorado-constitution&amp;title=Colorado%20Constitution"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Colorado Constitution establishes the basic framework of the state’s government. Written and ratified in 1876, it has served as the state’s original and only constitution. As in other states, ultimate power rests with the people and is exercised by their representatives in the <strong>executive</strong>, <strong>legislative</strong>, and <strong>judicial</strong> branches of state government. Colorado is distinct in reserving to its citizens the right to initiate laws, to hold referenda on laws enacted by the legislature, and to alter the Constitution, which has seen more than 150 amendments in its history.</p><h2>Writing and Ratification</h2><p>On December 20, 1875, thirty-nine delegates, representing every district in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>, gathered in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> for a constitutional convention. For almost three months, they studied constitutions, both of the United States and of other states, and debated the issues. The delegates chose a “rights first” approach to their new constitution, declaring the rights of the citizens before specifying the structure of the government. Like the US Constitution, the Colorado Constitution divided the government into three branches—executive, legislative, and judicial—that would check and balance each other’s power. The delegates completed their task on March 14, 1876, with all members signing. The document they created—forty pages of ledger paper as originally handwritten—was, and remains, one of the longest state constitutions.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The Constitution was ratified by voters on July 1, 1876, by a vote of 15,443 to 4,062, and a copy was sent to Washington, DC. A month later, on August 1, 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant proclaimed that Colorado was accepted into the Union as the thirty-eighth state.</p><h2>Inclusion and Suffrage</h2><p>In framing a constitution for Colorado, the first problem the delegates confronted was the diversity of its people. Shifting international and internal boundaries meant that people who had been living on the northern frontier of Mexico, Texas, or New Mexico Territory suddenly found themselves in Colorado after the territory’s borders were defined in 1861.</p><p>In the 1870s, nearly one-fifth of the state’s population was Spanish speaking. Territorial legislator <strong>Casimiro Barela</strong>, a delegate from southern Colorado, believed that his constituents would take another generation to acculturate, so he extracted a pledge from the convention that the Constitution and the statutes would be available in Spanish until 1900. German immigrants made up the largest segment of the new state’s foreign-born population, so the Constitution ended up being printed in German as well. The Constitution also promised that “aliens, who are or who may hereafter become bona fide residents of this State,” would enjoy the same property rights “as native born citizens.”</p><p>The Colorado Constitution gave the right to vote to all men over the age of twenty-one. In addition, the Constitution took a stand against racial discrimination, guaranteeing a free education for all. Women were given the right to vote only on questions pertaining to schools. At the urging of delegates <strong>Henry Bromwell</strong> of Denver and <strong>Agapito Vigil</strong> of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano</strong></a> and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas</strong></a> Counties, the Constitution provided for a referendum on <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/womens-suffrage-movement"><strong>women’s suffrage</strong></a> the following year and at any time thereafter. That first vote, in 1877, failed, and women in Colorado were not granted full suffrage until a referendum in 1893.</p><h2>Water Rights and Conservation</h2><p><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/water-colorado"><strong>Water</strong></a> rights have been a perennial issue in Colorado. As the constitutional convention sat down to its work at the end of 1875, it had in mind a clear recent example that shaped its approach to <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/water-law"><strong>water law</strong></a>. Just two years earlier, a dispute had erupted between two communities. The Union Colony (now <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/greeley"><strong>Greeley</strong></a>) had built two ditches to access water from the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cache-la-poudre-river"><strong>Cache la Poudre River</strong></a>. But their water flow dried up in 1874, when colonists in Camp Collins (now <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a>) built their own ditch, which diverted the entire flow of the river to their community. The question facing the convention’s delegates was whether upstream newcomers could intercept water that downstream residents already relied on. The delegates enshrined in the Constitution the concept of prior appropriation, or “first rights,” which prioritized older, more senior rights over more recent rights. In addition, the Constitution, relying on the 1861 act that had established the territory of Colorado, granted right-of-way across both public and private lands to build ditches and flumes.</p><p>Conservation was also important to the framers of Colorado’s Constitution, and they made their document the first state constitution to mention forests. The general assembly was instructed to “enact laws in order to prevent the destruction of, and to keep in good preservation, the forests upon the lands of the state.”</p><h2>Direct Democracy</h2><p>Colorado is one of only twenty states that still has its original constitution. However, since 1876, the Constitution has been amended more than 150 times. Initially, Article XIX specified two ways of amending the Constitution: a constitutional convention or a legislatively referred constitutional amendment, whereby an amendment is referred to the ballot for a vote of the people. Both methods of amending the Constitution—the constitutional convention and the legislatively referred amendments—had to begin with elected representatives.</p><p>The constitutional amendment process changed in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/progressive-era-colorado"><strong>Progressive Era</strong></a> of the early 1900s, when reformers such as Persifor M. Cooke, president of the Colorado Direct Legislation League, pushed to make the political system in Colorado more democratic. In 1910 a special legislative session referred a new amendment to the ballot, and voters approved, giving citizens two new powers: the referendum and the initiative. The referendum allowed citizens a direct say on legislation passed by the General Assembly through a process of gathering signatures on a petition to place the legislation on the ballot for voters to approve or reject.</p><p>The second and more significant new power, the initiative, allowed citizens to petition to place measures on the ballot that would enact either new statutes or constitutional amendments. Citizen-initiated statutes, like other laws, could later be changed by the General Assembly in the normal course of legislation. But citizen-initiated constitutional amendments could be changed only by another amendment. In 1912, the first year the initiative option was available, there were thirty-two ballot initiatives. The use of the ballot initiative to amend the state’s Constitution peaked in that decade and was used only sporadically for the next sixty years.</p><h2>1976 Winter Olympics</h2><p>Sixty years later, in the 1970s and 1980s, Colorado’s citizens began to use the Constitution to fight over social issues. The first modern ballot initiative involved taxation and the environment. In 1970, after years of work by the <strong>Chamber of Commerce</strong>, Denver was awarded the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/1976-winter-olympics"><strong>1976 Winter Olympics</strong></a>, in a nod to both the 200th anniversary of the United States and the 100th anniversary of the state of Colorado. But Colorado’s citizens did not feel involved in the decision to bring the Olympics to the state. This, combined with concerns about environmental and economic costs, led to a successful 1972 ballot initiative known as the Colorado Winter Olympic Games Funding and Tax Amendment, which prohibited the state from levying taxes or appropriating or loaning funds for the 1976 Olympics. With a major funding source unavailable, Denver had to give up the games, which were instead held in Innsbruck, Austria. No other city has ever rejected the Olympics after being awarded them.</p><h2>Recent Amendments</h2><p>Starting in the late 1980s, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/boulder"><strong>Boulder</strong></a>, Denver, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/aspen"><strong>Aspen</strong></a>, and other cities in Colorado instituted antidiscrimination ordinances that protected citizens on the basis of sexual orientation in addition to race, sex, and disability. In response, religious-rights organizations, spearheaded by the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a> group <strong>Colorado for Family Values</strong>, successfully pushed a 1992 initiative, known as <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/amendment-2"><strong>Amendment 2</strong></a>, that rescinded these protections and prohibited the state of Colorado from creating laws to protect anyone on the basis of sexual orientation. The Supreme Court later declared Amendment 2 unconstitutional because it violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.</p><p>The three recent amendments that have most affected the state legislature all deal with taxes and funding. The <strong>Gallagher Amendment</strong>, named for state legislator <strong>Dennis Gallagher</strong> and approved through legislative referral in 1982, was intended to keep a consistent ratio between the revenue from property taxes on residential and business properties. The effect over time has been a decline in revenues collected from property taxes. The <strong>Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)</strong>, passed by ballot initiative in 1992, gave citizens the right to vote on taxes, provided limitations on the growth of government spending, and prohibited the state from engaging in multiyear transactions. Finally, Amendment 23, passed in 2000, mandated that the state annually increase K–12 per-pupil funding by the rate of inflation. Together, these three amendments often work at cross-purposes, creating a budgetary knot that constrains the legislature. Attempts to either strengthen or eliminate these provisions continue to be contentious.</p><p>Recently, the most socially and culturally significant constitutional amendments have involved <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/cannabis-marijuana"><strong>cannabis</strong></a> (marijuana). In 2000 voters approved Amendment 20, which allowed the use of medical marijuana. Twelve years later, voters decided to allow recreational marijuana use under Amendment 64.</p><h2>Future of the Constitution</h2><p>Colorado’s Constitution provides ways for citizens to initiate both statutes and constitutional amendments. Since the initiative process was established in 1910, most ballot initiatives have been for constitutional amendments, which are difficult to change, rather than statutes, which are relatively easy to change. Especially in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the ease of amending Colorado’s constitution made it an attractive testing ground for both national movements and special interests. As different amendments piled up, one problem has been that there exists no easy mechanism to reconcile conflicting amendments. &nbsp;</p><p>To make the Colorado Constitution harder to amend, voters in 2016 approved <strong>Amendment 71</strong>, known as the “Raise the Bar” initiative. Previously, the requirements for citizen-initiated statutes and for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments had been the same. Amendment 71 changed that by raising the number of signatures required to get an initiated amendment onto the ballot from 5 percent of the number of people who voted for the <strong>Colorado secretary of state</strong> in the previous general election to 2 percent of registered voters in each of the state’s thirty-five Senate districts. The oil and gas industry underwrote the amendment campaign to ensure that new amendments could not rely solely on votes from Front Range population centers, which often vote for industry regulation.</p><p>Amendment 71 also made the amendment process harder by requiring new amendments to garner 55 percent of the vote in order to go into effect. In a 2018 ruling, US district judge William Martinez upheld that part of Amendment 71, but ruled that the requirement to get votes from each of the state’s Senate districts was unconstitutional. Amendment 71 continues to be litigated.</p></div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/wroble-susan" hreflang="und">Wroble, Susan</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-state-constitution" hreflang="en">Colorado State Constitution</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-territory" hreflang="en">Colorado Territory</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/statehood" hreflang="en">statehood</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/suffrage" hreflang="en">Suffrage</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/casimiro-barela" hreflang="en">casimiro barela</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/henry-bromwell" hreflang="en">henry bromwell</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/agipito-vigil" hreflang="en">agipito vigil</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/womens-suffrage" hreflang="en">Women&#039;s Suffrage</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/water" hreflang="en">water</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-conservation" hreflang="en">colorado conservation</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/1976-winter-olympics" hreflang="en">1976 winter olympics</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/gallagher-amendment" hreflang="en">gallagher amendment</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/amendment-2" hreflang="en">amendment 2</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/tabor" hreflang="en">TABOR</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/taxpayer-bill-rights" hreflang="en">Taxpayer Bill of Rights</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/amendment-23" hreflang="en">amendment 23</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/amendment-20" hreflang="en">amendment 20</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/amendment-64" hreflang="en">amendment 64</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/amendment-71" hreflang="en">amendment 71</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>“<a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Colorado_Imposition_of_Distribution_and_Supermajority_Requirements_for_Citizen-Initiated_Constitutional_Amendments,_Amendment_71_(2016)">Colorado Imposition of Distribution and Supermajority Requirements for Citizen-Initiated Constitutional Amendments, Amendment 71 (2016)</a>,” Ballotpedia.</p><p><a href="https://advance.lexis.com/container/?pdmfid=1000516&amp;crid=42826d1a-6c94-42d3-9035-815ea71ba546&amp;func=LN.Advance.ContentView.getFullToc&amp;nodeid=AAB&amp;typeofentry=Breadcrumb&amp;config=0155JAAyMzg2MTYzZi1jMWNlLTRlOTQtODVjZS0xZTU0MDg1YmQ0OTUKAFBvZENhdGFsb2eEcVf2aFZwpM1qua3EYcVa&amp;action=publictoc&amp;pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fstatutes-legislation%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5WX1-GDD0-004D-108V-00008-00&amp;pdtocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Ftableofcontents%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A7XPT-W0Y0-Y96J-1000-00008-00&amp;ecomp=9s-fkkk&amp;prid=01f16955-5858-4ccb-9e8f-76826d6c175a">Constitution of the State of Colorado</a>.</p><p>Wilma R. Davidson, <em>A Force for Change: The League of Women Voters of Colorado, 1928–1995</em> (Denver: League of Women Voters of Colorado, 1995).</p><p>Grace Hood, “<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2016/09/30/is-amendment-71-now-a-proxy-battleground-for-colorados-oil-gas-differences/">Is Amendment 71 Now a Proxy Battleground for Colorado’s Oil and Gas Differences?</a>,” CPR News, September 30, 2016.</p><p>Mary Mullarkey, “<a href="https://www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/Education/Constitution.cfm">Message From Former Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey</a>,” Colorado Constitution Day Resources, Colorado Judicial Branch<em>,</em> updated January 2013.</p><p>Gale Norton, “<a href="https://www.jrmc2.com/PDF/ColoradoConstitution.pdf">Introduction to the Constitution of the State of Colorado</a>,” n.d.</p><p>Julie Pelegrin, “<a href="https://legisource.net/2012/08/23/the-power-of-the-people-reservation-of-the-initiative-and-referendum-powers/">The Power of the People: Reservation of the Initiative and Referendum Powers</a>,” Colorado LegiSource, August 23, 2012.</p><p>Rocky Mountain PBS, “<a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/colorado-experience-colorado-constitution/">Colorado Constitution</a>,” <em>Colorado Experience</em>, May 9, 2013.</p><p>Judy G. Russell, “<a href="https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2012/08/02/state-constitutions-colorado/">State Constitutions: Colorado</a>,” <em>Legal Genealogist</em>, August 2, 2012.</p><p>“<a href="https://grossmanattorneys.com/defense-base-act-questions/">West to the 32nd Meridian: The Colorado Constitution</a>,” <em>Docket</em>, March 27, 2014.</p></div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Carl Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, and Thomas J. Noel, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State</em>, 5th ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2013).</p></div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-4th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-4th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-4th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-4th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-4th-grade"><p>The Colorado Constitution creates the framework of the state’s government. It was written and ratified in 1876. It is the state’s original and only constitution.</p><p>Like the US Constitution, the Colorado Constitution divided the government into three branches. The <strong>executive</strong>, <strong>legislative,</strong> and <strong>judicial</strong> would check and balance each other’s power.</p><h2>Writing and Ratification</h2><p>On December 20, 1875, thirty-nine delegates gathered in Denver for a constitutional convention. For almost three months, they studied and debated the issues.</p><p>The delegates completed their task on March 14, 1876. All members signed. The document they created was forty handwritten pages. It is one of the longest state constitutions.</p><p>The Constitution was ratified by voters on July 1, 1876. A copy was sent to Washington, DC. A month later, President Ulysses S. Grant accepted Colorado into the Union as the thirty-eighth state.</p><h2>Inclusion and Suffrage</h2><p>In the 1870s, nearly one-fifth of the state’s population was Spanish speaking. The convention pledged the Constitution would be available in Spanish until 1900. German immigrants made up the largest part of the foreign-born population. So, the Constitution was printed in German as well.</p><p>The Colorado Constitution gave the right to vote to all men over twenty-one. The Constitution also guaranteed a free education for all. Women could only vote on questions about schools. However, the Constitution allowed for voting on <strong>women’s suffrage</strong>. The first vote in 1877 failed. Women in Colorado did not get the right to vote until 1893.</p><h2>Water Rights and Conservation</h2><p><strong>Water</strong> rights have always been an issue in Colorado. The convention had an example that shaped its approach to <strong>water law</strong>. The Union Colony (now <strong>Greeley</strong>) had built two ditches to access water. Their water flow dried up in 1874, when colonists in Camp Collins (now <strong>Fort Collins</strong>) built their own ditch. The ditch diverted all the water to Camp Collins. The question was whether upstream newcomers could take water that downstream residents already relied on. The delegates went with the concept of “first rights." First rights prioritized older water rights over newer rights.</p><p>Conservation was also important to the framers. They made the document the first state constitution to mention forests.</p><h2>Direct Democracy</h2><p>Colorado is one of only twenty states that still has its original constitution. However, since 1876, the Constitution has been changed more than 150 times.</p><p>At first, there were two ways to change the Constitution. There could be a constitutional convention or a legislatively referred amendment. Amendments were put on the ballot for a vote of the people.</p><p>The amendment process changed in the early 1900s. In 1910, a special legislative session referred a new amendment to the ballot. The voters approved. This gave citizens two new powers: the referendum and the initiative.</p><p>The referendum gave citizens a direct say on laws. The initiative allowed citizens to put measures on the ballot. The measures would create new statutes or amendments. Citizen-initiated statutes could later be changed by the state legislature. Citizen-initiated amendments could only be changed by another amendment.</p><p>1912 was the first year the initiative option was available. There were thirty-two ballot initiatives that year. The use of the ballot initiative peaked in that decade. It wasn't used much for the next sixty years.</p><h2>1976 Winter Olympics</h2><p>In 1970, Denver was awarded the <strong>1976 Winter Olympics</strong>. Colorado’s citizens did not feel involved in the decision. There were also concerns about costs. This led to the passage of the Colorado Winter Olympic Games Funding and Tax Amendment in 1972. The amendment stopped the state from raising taxes or loaning money for the 1976 Olympics. With a major funding source gone, Denver had to give up the games. No other city has rejected the Olympics after being awarded them.</p><h2>Recent Amendments</h2><p>The <strong>Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)</strong> was passed by ballot initiative in 1992. TABOR gave citizens the right to vote on taxes. It created limits on the growth of government spending.</p><h2>Future of the Constitution</h2><p>Since 1910, most ballot initiatives have been for amendments. Amendments are difficult to change. Statutes are relatively easy to change. The ease of changing the constitution has made Colorado an attractive testing ground for national movements and special interests.</p><p>Voters approved <strong>Amendment 71</strong> in 2016. It makes the Colorado Constitution harder to change. However, parts of Amendment 71 are still being fought in court.</p></div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-8th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-8th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-8th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-8th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-8th-grade"><p>The Colorado Constitution creates the framework of the state’s government. It was written and ratified in 1876. It is the state’s original and only constitution.</p><p>Citizens have the right to initiate laws. They can hold referenda on laws passed by the legislature. Citizens can also change the Constitution. The document has seen more than 150 amendments in its history.</p><h2>Writing and Ratification</h2><p>On December 20, 1875, thirty-nine delegates gathered in Denver for a constitutional convention. For almost three months, they studied and debated the issues.</p><p>Like the US Constitution, the Colorado Constitution divided the government into three branches. The <strong>executive</strong>, <strong>legislative</strong>, and <strong>judicial </strong>would check and balance each other’s power.</p><p>The delegates completed their task on March 14, 1876, with all members signing. The document they created was forty handwritten pages. It is one of the longest state constitutions.</p><p>The Constitution was ratified by voters on July 1, 1876, by a vote of 15,443 to 4,062. A copy was sent to Washington, DC. A month later, on August 1, 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant accepted Colorado into the Union as the thirty-eighth state.</p><h2>Inclusion and Suffrage</h2><p>In the 1870s, nearly one-fifth of the state’s population was Spanish speaking. The convention pledged the Constitution would be available in Spanish until 1900. German immigrants made up the largest part of the foreign-born population. So, the Constitution was printed in German as well.</p><p>The Colorado Constitution gave the right to vote to all men over twenty-one. In addition, the Constitution guaranteed a free education for all. Women were given the right to vote only on questions pertaining to schools. However, the Constitution allowed for voting on <strong>women’s suffrage</strong>. The first vote in 1877 failed. Women in Colorado were not granted full suffrage until 1893.</p><h2>Water Rights and Conservation</h2><p><strong>Water</strong> rights have always been an issue in Colorado. The convention had an example that shaped its approach to <strong>water law</strong>. The Union Colony (now <strong>Greeley</strong>) had built two ditches to access water. Their water flow dried up in 1874, when colonists in Camp Collins (now <strong>Fort Collins</strong>) built their own ditch. The ditch diverted all the water to Camp Collins. The question was whether upstream newcomers could take water that downstream residents already relied on. The delegates enshrined the concept of “first rights." First rights prioritized older water rights over newer rights.</p><p>Conservation was also important to the framers. They made the document the first state constitution to mention forests.</p><h2>Direct Democracy</h2><p>Colorado is one of only twenty states that still has its original constitution. However, since 1876, the Constitution has been amended more than 150 times. Initially, Article XIX had two ways of changing the Constitution. There could be a constitutional convention or a legislatively referred amendment. Amendments are placed on the ballot for a vote of the people.</p><p>The amendment process changed in the early 1900s. In 1910, a special legislative session referred a new amendment to the ballot. The voters approved. This gave citizens two new powers: the referendum and the initiative. The referendum gave citizens a direct say on laws.</p><p>The initiative allowed citizens to place measures on the ballot. The measures would enact either new statutes or amendments. Citizen-initiated statutes could later be changed by the state legislature. Citizen-initiated amendments could only be changed by another amendment.</p><p>In 1912, the first year the initiative option was available, there were thirty-two ballot initiatives. The use of the ballot initiative to amend the state’s Constitution peaked in that decade. It wasn't used much for the next sixty years.</p><h2>1976 Winter Olympics</h2><p>In 1970, Denver was awarded the <strong>1976 Winter Olympics</strong>. Colorado’s citizens did not feel involved in the decision. There were also concerns about costs. This led to the passage of the Colorado Winter Olympic Games Funding and Tax Amendment in 1972. The amendment stopped the state from raising taxes or loaning money for the 1976 Olympics. With a major funding source gone, Denver had to give up the games. No other city has rejected the Olympics after being awarded them.</p><h2>Recent Amendments</h2><p>Starting in the late 1980s, cities in Colorado passed laws protecting citizens based on sexual orientation. In response, religious-rights groups helped pass <strong>Amendment 2</strong> in 1992. Amendment 2 took away these protections. It stopped the state from creating laws to protect people based on sexual orientation. The Supreme Court later declared Amendment 2 unconstitutional.</p><p>The <strong>Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)</strong> was passed by ballot initiative in 1992. TABOR gave citizens the right to vote on taxes. It created limits on the growth of government spending.</p><p>Recently, amendments have involved <strong>cannabis</strong> (marijuana). In 2000 voters approved Amendment 20, which allowed the use of medical marijuana. Twelve years later, voters decided to allow recreational marijuana under Amendment 64.</p><h2>Future of the Constitution</h2><p>Since 1910, most ballot initiatives have been for amendments. Amendments are difficult to change. Statutes are relatively easy to change. The ease of changing the constitution has made Colorado an attractive testing ground for special interests.</p><p>To make the Colorado Constitution harder to change, voters approved <strong>Amendment 71</strong> in 2016. Before, the requirements for citizen-initiated statutes and for citizen-initiated amendments were the same. Amendment 71 changed that. It raised the number of signatures required to get an initiated amendment on the ballot.</p><p>Amendment 71 also required new amendments to get 55 percent of the vote to go into effect. In a 2018, US district judge William Martinez upheld that part of Amendment 71. However, Amendment 71 is still being fought in court.</p></div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-10th-grade--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-10th-grade.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-10th-grade.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-10th-grade field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-field-10th-grade"><p>The Colorado Constitution creates the basic framework of the state’s government. Written and ratified in 1876, it is the state’s original and only constitution. As in other states, ultimate power rests with the people. Power is exercised by representatives in the <strong>executive</strong>, <strong>legislative</strong>, and <strong>judicial</strong> branches. Citizens have the right to initiate laws, to hold referenda on laws enacted by the legislature, and to change the Constitution. The document has seen more than 150 amendments in its history.</p><h2>Writing and Ratification</h2><p>On December 20, 1875, thirty-nine delegates gathered in <strong>Denver</strong> for a constitutional convention. For almost three months, they studied and debated the issues. The delegates chose a “rights first” approach to their new constitution. They declared the rights of the citizens before specifying the structure of the government. Like the US Constitution, the Colorado Constitution divided the government into three branches. The executive, legislative, and judicial would check and balance each other’s power. The delegates completed their task on March 14, 1876, with all members signing. The document they created was forty handwritten pages. It is one of the longest state constitutions.</p><p>The Constitution was ratified by voters on July 1, 1876, by a vote of 15,443 to 4,062. A copy was sent to Washington, DC. A month later, on August 1, 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant accepted Colorado into the Union as the thirty-eighth state.</p><h2>Inclusion and Suffrage</h2><p>The first problem the delegates confronted was the diversity of its people. Shifting boundaries meant people who had been living on the northern frontier of Mexico, Texas, or New Mexico Territory found themselves in Colorado after the territory’s borders were defined in 1861.</p><p>In the 1870s, nearly one-fifth of the state’s population was Spanish speaking. <strong>Casimiro Barela</strong>, a delegate from southern Colorado, had the convention pledge that the Constitution would be available in Spanish until 1900. German immigrants made up the largest segment of the new state’s foreign-born population, so the Constitution was printed in German as well.</p><p>The Colorado Constitution gave the right to vote to all men over the age of twenty-one. In addition, the Constitution took a stand against racial discrimination. It guaranteed a free education for all. Women were given the right to vote only on questions pertaining to schools. At the urging of two delegates, the Constitution provided for a referendum on <strong>women’s suffrage</strong> the following year and any time thereafter. The first vote in 1877 failed. Women in Colorado were not granted full suffrage until 1893.</p><h2>Water Rights and Conservation</h2><p><strong>Water</strong> rights have always been an issue in Colorado. The constitutional convention had a recent example that shaped its approach to <strong>water law</strong>. Two years earlier, there was a dispute between two communities. The Union Colony (now <strong>Greeley</strong>) had built two ditches to access water from the <strong>Cache la Poudre River</strong>. Their water flow dried up in 1874, when colonists in Camp Collins (now <strong>Fort Collins</strong>) built their own ditch. The ditch diverted the entire flow of the river to Camp Collins. The question was whether upstream newcomers could take water that downstream residents already relied on. The delegates enshrined in the Constitution the concept of “first rights." First rights prioritized older, more senior rights over more recent rights. In addition, the Constitution granted right-of-way across both public and private lands to build ditches.</p><p>Conservation was also important to the framers of Colorado’s Constitution. They made their document the first state constitution to mention forests.</p><h2>Direct Democracy</h2><p>Colorado is one of only twenty states that still has its original constitution. However, since 1876, the Constitution has been amended more than 150 times. Initially, Article XIX specified two ways of amending the Constitution. There could be a constitutional convention or a legislatively referred constitutional amendment. Amendments are placed on the ballot for a vote of the people. Both methods of amending the Constitution begin with elected representatives.</p><p>The amendment process changed in the <strong>Progressive Era</strong> of the early 1900s. Reformers pushed to make Colorado's political system more democratic. In 1910 a special legislative session referred a new amendment to the ballot. The voters approved, giving citizens two new powers: the referendum and the initiative. The referendum allowed citizens a direct say on legislation passed by the General Assembly through a process of gathering signatures on a petition to place the legislation on the ballot. Voters could approve or reject.</p><p>The second new power, the initiative, allowed citizens to petition to place measures on the ballot. The measures would enact either new statutes or constitutional amendments. Citizen-initiated statutes, like other laws, could later be changed by the General Assembly. But citizen-initiated constitutional amendments could be changed only by another amendment. In 1912, the first year the initiative option was available, there were thirty-two ballot initiatives. The use of the ballot initiative to amend the state’s Constitution peaked in that decade. It wasn't used much for the next sixty years.</p><h2>1976 Winter Olympics</h2><p>In the 1970s and 1980s, citizens began to use the Constitution to fight over social issues. In 1970, Denver was awarded the <strong>1976 Winter Olympics</strong>. Colorado’s citizens did not feel involved in the decision to bring the Olympics to the state. This, combined with concerns about costs, led to a successful 1972 ballot initiative known as the Colorado Winter Olympic Games Funding and Tax Amendment. The amendment stopped the state from raising taxes or loaning money for the 1976 Olympics. With a major funding source gone, Denver had to give up the games. No other city has ever rejected the Olympics after being awarded them.</p><h2>Recent Amendments</h2><p>Starting in the late 1980s, <strong>Boulder</strong>, Denver, <strong>Aspen</strong>, and other cities in Colorado passed ordinances that protected citizens based on sexual orientation. In response, religious-rights groups helped pass a 1992 initiative known as <strong>Amendment 2</strong>. Amendment 2 took away these protections. It stopped the state from creating laws to protect anyone on the basis of sexual orientation. The Supreme Court later declared Amendment 2 unconstitutional. It violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.</p><p>The three recent amendments that have most affected the state legislature all deal with taxes and funding. The <strong>Gallagher Amendment</strong> was named for state legislator <strong>Dennis Gallagher</strong>. It was approved through a legislative referral in 1982. The amendment was intended to keep a consistent ratio between the revenue from property taxes on residential and business properties. The effect has been a decline in revenues collected from property taxes over time.</p><p>The <strong>Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)</strong> was passed by ballot initiative in 1992. TABOR gave citizens the right to vote on taxes. It provided limitations on the growth of government spending.</p><p>Amendment 23 was passed in 2000. It mandated that the state increase K–12 per-pupil funding by the rate of inflation every year.</p><p>Together, these three amendments often work at cross-purposes. Attempts to either strengthen or eliminate these provisions continue to be contentious.</p><p>Recently, the most socially and culturally significant constitutional amendments have involved <strong>cannabis</strong> (marijuana). In 2000 voters approved Amendment 20, which allowed the use of medical marijuana. Twelve years later, voters decided to allow recreational marijuana use under Amendment 64.</p><h2>Future of the Constitution</h2><p>Colorado’s Constitution provides ways for citizens to initiate both statutes and constitutional amendments. Since 1910, most ballot initiatives have been for constitutional amendments, which are difficult to change, rather than statutes, which are relatively easy to change. The ease of amending Colorado’s constitution has made it an attractive testing ground for national movements and special interests.</p><p>To make the Colorado Constitution harder to amend, voters approved <strong>Amendment 71 </strong>in 2016. Previously, the requirements for citizen-initiated statutes and for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments had been the same. Amendment 71 changed that by raising the number of signatures required to get an initiated amendment onto the ballot.</p><p>Amendment 71 also made the amendment process harder by requiring new amendments to get 55 percent of the vote in order to go into effect. In a 2018 ruling, US district judge William Martinez upheld that part of Amendment 71. However, Amendment 71 continues to be litigated.</p></div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 13 Mar 2020 22:01:03 +0000 yongli 3184 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org