The Alabama Constitution is the state’s supreme law, and the version currently in force is the Constitution of 2022. It reorganized the 1901 Constitution into eighteen articles, folded in nearly a thousand amendments, and stripped out discriminatory and defunct language, without changing the underlying legal substance.1Ballotpedia. Alabama Recompiled Constitution Ratification Question (2022) Any state statute or local ordinance that conflicts with it is invalid.
Why Alabama Recompiled Its Constitution in 2022
Alabama lived under the 1901 Constitution for more than 120 years. Its framers openly designed it to keep Black residents and poor white residents from voting.2al.com. What’s in Alabama’s New State Constitution of 2022? What’s Changed? Over the following century, the legislature piled on amendment after amendment for matters other states handle through ordinary legislation. Many were local amendments addressing a single county, because the constitution required state legislative action for routine county decisions. By 2021 the document carried 977 amendments and was the longest constitution in the United States.1Ballotpedia. Alabama Recompiled Constitution Ratification Question (2022)
In 2020, voters approved Amendment 4, authorizing the legislature to recompile the text during its 2022 session. The authorized work included rearranging the text into proper articles and sections, removing racist language, deleting duplicative and repealed provisions, consolidating economic development provisions, and organizing local amendments by county.1Ballotpedia. Alabama Recompiled Constitution Ratification Question (2022) Voters ratified the recompiled version in November 2022. Because the legal substance did not change, cases and interpretations built up under the 1901 document still carry forward; only the packaging is new.
How the Document Is Organized
The eighteen articles move from individual rights through the structure of state government to the process for future amendments.3Ballotpedia. Alabama Constitution They cover the declaration of rights, state and county boundaries, separation of powers, the legislature, the executive branch, the judiciary, impeachment, suffrage and elections, representation, taxation, banking, corporations, the militia, education, homestead exemptions, the oath of office, miscellaneous provisions, and the amendment process.4Justia. Alabama Constitution The sequential numbering system lets you find a specific provision without chasing cross-references through layers of amendments, which was often the problem with the old version.
Rights the Constitution Protects
Article I is the Declaration of Rights, Alabama’s equivalent of the federal Bill of Rights. Its thirty-six sections spell out freedoms the constitution calls “excepted out of the general powers of government” and “forever inviolable.” You get the right to a jury trial in criminal and civil cases, the right to bear arms, the right to assemble peaceably, and a guarantee that no person will be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The state cannot establish any religion or require a religious test for public office.5Alabama Legislature. Alabama Constitution of 2022 Many of these protections overlap with federal rights and sometimes reach further.
Suing the State: Section 14
One provision has outsized practical consequences. Section 14 declares that “the State of Alabama shall never be made a defendant in any court of law or equity.”6Alabama Legislature. Constitution of Alabama 2022 Courts read this sovereign immunity clause broadly. If a state agency or a state employee acting in an official capacity harms you, this provision generally blocks a direct lawsuit against the state. Alabama’s sovereign immunity is among the strongest in the country.
How Alabama Makes Laws
Article IV creates the legislature, with a senate and a house of representatives. Every bill must contain a single subject clearly expressed in its title, a rule meant to prevent unrelated provisions from being buried inside larger bills.7Ballotpedia. Article IV, Alabama Constitution
Session Limits
The constitution places unusually tight limits on legislative time. A regular session is capped at 30 meeting days spread across a 105-calendar-day window. Organizational sessions held after elections are limited to ten consecutive calendar days. The governor can call special sessions, but those are restricted to 12 legislative days within a 30-calendar-day span, and the legislature can only act on subjects the governor identifies in the proclamation. Anything outside that scope requires a two-thirds vote of each house.8Alabama Legislature. Alabama’s Legislative Process Bills that don’t pass within the session window die and must be reintroduced the following year.
General Laws and Local Laws
Alabama’s constitution draws a sharp line between general laws, which apply statewide, and local laws, which address a specific county or municipality. The structure developed because the constitution historically required state legislative action for decisions other states hand to local governments. Before the legislature can consider a local law, the substance of the proposed bill must be advertised in a newspaper published in the affected county at least once a week for four consecutive weeks. The Alabama Supreme Court has heard many challenges over whether a given law is genuinely general or improperly local. For residents, the distinction explains why tax rates, zoning rules, and government services vary so much between neighboring counties.
The Executive Branch
Article V names the state’s constitutional officers: the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, State Auditor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Superintendent of Education, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries.4Justia. Alabama Constitution Most are elected statewide every four years; the Superintendent of Education is appointed by the state board of education rather than elected.9Alabama Legislature. Constitution of Alabama 2022
The Governor and Lieutenant Governor must each be at least thirty years old at the time of election, a United States citizen for at least ten years, and a resident of Alabama for at least seven years.10Ballotpedia. Governor of Alabama The Governor is the chief executive officer and can grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons for all crimes except treason and impeachment cases. Governors are limited to two consecutive terms. A governor who serves two terms back-to-back must sit out at least one full term before running again.11Ballotpedia. States with Gubernatorial Term Limits
The Court System
Article VI creates a unified judicial system. All of Alabama’s courts operate under a single organizational structure rather than as independent local systems. At the top sits the Supreme Court of Alabama, with a Chief Justice and eight associate justices. Two intermediate appellate courts sit below it: the Court of Criminal Appeals and the Court of Civil Appeals. At the trial level, Circuit Courts have general jurisdiction over larger civil claims and serious criminal cases, while District Courts handle matters of limited jurisdiction. Probate courts and municipal courts round out the system, with municipal courts handling local ordinance violations.12Justia. Alabama Constitution – Amendment 328
All judges are elected by voters within their court’s geographic jurisdiction and serve six-year terms.12Justia. Alabama Constitution – Amendment 328 The Chief Justice is also the administrative head of the judicial branch. For discipline, the Judicial Inquiry Commission investigates allegations of judicial misconduct and, when grounds exist, files formal charges in the Court of the Judiciary, a separate tribunal that decides whether to discipline, suspend, or remove the judge.13Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission. About Us
Who Can Vote
Article VIII sets voting qualifications. To register and vote you must be a United States citizen, at least eighteen years old, and a resident of the state and county for the period required by law.14Ballotpedia. Article VIII, Alabama Constitution The legislature prescribes registration procedures and rules for absentee voting, ballot secrecy, and election administration.
Two groups are disqualified: people convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude and people who have been declared mentally incompetent. Either can regain voting rights through restoration of civil and political rights or removal of the disability.14Ballotpedia. Article VIII, Alabama Constitution Because “moral turpitude” was vague enough to invite selective enforcement, the legislature passed the Felony Voter Disqualification Act, which lists specific offenses that trigger disenfranchisement. The list includes murder, rape, kidnapping, human trafficking, terrorism, and domestic violence in the first or second degree, among others.15Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code Title 17-3-30.1 – Disqualification of Electors for Felonies Involving Moral Turpitude If a felony conviction is not on that list, it does not cost the person their right to vote.
Tax Rules Written Into the Constitution
Several Alabama tax rules are not statutory but constitutional, which means the legislature cannot change them on its own. The state income tax rate is capped at 5 percent.16Alabama Department of Revenue. Individual Income Tax Minimum personal exemptions are locked in at $1,500 for single filers, $3,000 for joint filers, and $300 per dependent.
The most distinctive provision is the deduction for federal income taxes paid. Alabama is the only state that allows taxpayers to deduct the full amount of their federal income taxes from their state taxable income.16Alabama Department of Revenue. Individual Income Tax Because the deduction is embedded in the constitution, eliminating or reducing it would require a statewide vote. The deduction benefits higher-income taxpayers most, since they pay more in federal taxes and so get a larger state deduction.
Changing the Constitution
Article XVIII sets out two paths for amendment, and both end with voter approval.17Ballotpedia. Article XVIII, Alabama Constitution
The standard route is a legislative amendment. A proposal must be read on three separate days in the originating chamber and approved by a three-fifths vote of all members elected to that chamber. It then goes to the other chamber for the same three-reading process and the same three-fifths threshold.17Ballotpedia. Article XVIII, Alabama Constitution If both chambers approve, the amendment goes on a statewide ballot, where a simple majority decides it.
The second path is a constitutional convention. The legislature can place a convention question on the ballot by a majority vote of all members elected to each house. If voters approve, a convention is called with the authority to propose changes.18Alabama Legislature. Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama The legislative threshold is lower than for a single amendment, but the voters have to agree before the convention can meet.
Alabama does not have a citizen initiative. Residents cannot gather signatures to put a proposed law or constitutional amendment directly on the ballot. Every constitutional change must start in the legislature. Proposals to create a citizen initiative process have been introduced but have not advanced.