Constitution of South Carolina

The Constitution of the State of South Carolina is the governing document of the U.S. state of South Carolina. It describes the structure and function of the state's government. The current constitution took effect on December 4, 1895. South Carolina has had six other constitutions, which were adopted in 1776, 1778, 1790, 1861, 1865 and 1868.

Before the 1895 Constitution, voter registration limits were lower; voting was open to all males of 21 years. In the 1895 Constitution, the focus of voter registration became one of "intelligence" instead of "personhood." Individuals would, until January 1, 1898, have to be able to answer questions about any constitutional provision asked in order to qualify as a voter. Thereafter, the registration process included a test of reading and writing; individuals with at least $20 in property were also permitted to vote. The change from the 1868 constitution's "personhood" to the 1895 constitution's "intelligence" was due to the 1895 constitution's framers' desire to disenfranchise African Americans in order to bar them from participation in the political process. According to the state's Democratic Party-leaning newspapers, the motivations behind changing the constitution were clear:

We can trust white men to do right by the inferior race, but we cannot trust the inferior race with power over the white man.

The 1895 Constitution has been rewritten article by article on an ongoing basis since 1968, with each proposed revision submitted to the voters for approval. Prior to 1968, the 1895 Constitution had been amended 330 times, making it one of the longest state constitutions in the United States. It had become a somewhat chaotic document, in large part because most of the amendments dealt with matters addressed by statute in most other states.

The great majority of these amendments dealt with bonded debt limits for local governments. Originally, changes in the bonded debt limits for counties could only be adopted by a statewide vote.

Article XVI, Section 1 requires constitutional amendments to be approved by two-thirds of each house of the legislature, approved by the people in an election, and then ratified by a majority of each house of the legislature. If the legislature fails to ratify the amendment, it does not take effect even though it has been approved by the people.

Some provisions of the Constitution of South Carolina have conflicted with the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court has had to resolve the constitutionality of some provisions of the former document. For example:

Some provisions of the Constitution of South Carolina are antiquated and reflect the morals of an earlier era. For example, Article XVII, Section 3 of the Constitution prohibited divorce for any reason. On April 15, 1949, it was revised to permit divorce for certain reasons. It is believed that South Carolina is the only state in which the grounds for divorce are written into the constitution. The legislature is thus prohibited from creating additional grounds for divorce except by constitutional amendment.

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