Wyoming Constitution: Rights, Branches, and Key Provisions

The Wyoming Constitution is the state’s governing charter, adopted at a Cheyenne convention on September 30, 1889, and effective when Wyoming entered the Union as the 44th state on July 10, 1890.¹ Across 21 articles, it sets out individual rights, divides power among three branches, structures taxation and public debt, mandates a public school system, allocates ownership of the state’s water, and lays down the rules for amending itself. Two features stand out historically: it was the first state constitution to guarantee women full voting rights, and it contains unusually detailed provisions on water and mineral taxation that reflect the economy of an arid western state.

Rights the Constitution Protects

Article 1, the Declaration of Rights, is where the constitution limits what Wyoming’s government can do to the people living under it. Section 1 declares that all political power belongs to the people, who hold a permanent right to change or abolish the government. Section 2 states that every person has equal inherent rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and Section 3 requires that laws affecting political rights apply without distinction of race, color, sex, or any other condition.¹

Religious freedom is handled in two separate sections that work in tandem. Section 18 protects the free exercise of worship and bars disqualifying anyone from public office or jury service because of religious belief.² Section 19 prohibits the state from spending any public money on religious or sectarian institutions.¹ One shields personal belief; the other keeps public funds out of religious affairs.

Section 20 guarantees that every person may freely speak, write, and publish on any subject, while remaining responsible for abusing that right. In libel cases, truth published with good intentions and for justifiable purposes is a complete defense.²

The right to bear arms sits in Section 24, which states that the right of citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and of the state shall not be denied.³ Wyoming’s version has no militia qualifier and explicitly protects both personal self-defense and defense of the state, giving it broader reach than many state analogs when firearm regulations are challenged.

Section 9 keeps the right to trial by jury inviolate in criminal cases. A twelve-person jury can be required in civil disputes exceeding $1,000 and in felony prosecutions; for other cases, the legislature may authorize smaller juries.² Section 27 requires that elections remain open, free, and equal, with no civil or military power permitted to interfere with the right to vote.¹

Equal Suffrage and the Equality State Clause

Wyoming’s nickname traces to Article 6, Section 1, which provides that the right of Wyoming citizens to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex, and that male and female citizens shall equally enjoy all civil, political, and religious rights.¹ At the 1889 convention, some delegates worried the provision would jeopardize statehood in Congress. It nearly did, but the language stayed, and Wyoming became the first state to guarantee equal suffrage regardless of gender.⁴ The constitution carried this guarantee more than 30 years before the 19th Amendment.

How Power Is Divided

Article 2 splits government authority into legislative, executive, and judicial branches and flatly forbids any person exercising the powers of one branch from exercising those of another.⁵ The language is stricter than in many states, prohibiting crossover rather than merely discouraging it.

Legislature

Article 3 vests legislative power in a Senate and House of Representatives. No bill becomes law without a majority vote of all members elected to each chamber, recorded by name in the journal.¹ “All members elected” means a majority of the full membership, not just of those present on the floor.

Governor

Article 4 places executive power in a governor serving a four-year term. The governor commands the state’s military forces, may convene special legislative sessions, and must see that laws are faithfully executed. Every bill passed by the legislature goes to the governor; if vetoed, it returns to the originating chamber, and an override requires a two-thirds vote of all elected members in each chamber.⁶ The governor also holds a line-item veto over appropriations bills, able to strike individual spending items while signing the rest into law.

Courts

Article 5 establishes a Supreme Court of no fewer than three and no more than five justices, as set by the legislature, with the justices electing a chief justice from among themselves. District courts are also created, and the legislature may create additional courts. Judges reach the bench through merit selection: when a Supreme Court or district court vacancy opens, a judicial nominating commission submits three names, and the governor must appoint from that list.⁷

Water Rights

Article 8 handles water with a level of constitutional detail unusual outside the arid West. Section 1 declares that all water in natural streams, springs, lakes, and other bodies within the state belongs to the state itself.⁸ Private landowners don’t own the water flowing through their property. They can only acquire a right to use it.

Section 3 establishes the prior appropriation doctrine: the first person to put water to beneficial use gets the superior right, and no appropriation can be denied unless the public interest demands it.⁹ Water rights are ranked by seniority. In a shortage, junior appropriators lose access before senior ones do. Beneficial use (irrigation, livestock, municipal supply, industry) is both the basis for acquiring a right and the standard for keeping it; holders who stop putting their allocation to beneficial use risk losing it. A Board of Control oversees appropriation, distribution, and diversion of all state waters.⁸

Taxes, Mineral Revenue, and Why There Is No Income Tax

Article 15 builds Wyoming’s tax system around property and mineral production rather than personal income. All property must be uniformly assessed across four classes: mineral production, industrial property, residential real property, and everything else.¹ Mines and mining claims are taxed on their gross production value in lieu of taxes on the land itself.

Levies at each level of government are capped. The state can impose up to four mills per dollar of assessed value for general revenue, counties up to twelve mills, and cities up to eight mills, with debt service excluded from those limits.¹

The constitution does not flatly ban a state income tax. Article 15, Section 18 requires that any income tax give full credit for all sales, use, and property taxes the same taxpayer has paid to any Wyoming taxing authority.¹ The credits would wipe out most of the revenue, which makes a meaningful state income tax extremely difficult to enact in practice.

Section 19 of Article 15 creates the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund through a 1.5% excise tax on the gross value of severed minerals, including coal, petroleum, natural gas, and oil shale. All proceeds flow into the fund, in addition to any other severance or property taxes the legislature imposes.¹⁰ The purpose is to convert depleting underground wealth into a lasting financial asset.

Limits on Public Debt

Article 16 caps borrowing at every level of government. The state cannot create debt exceeding 1% of the assessed value of all taxable property, except to suppress insurrection or provide for public defense. Any state debt exceeding the current year’s tax revenue requires voter approval.¹

Counties and municipalities face a 2% cap on assessed value, with narrow exceptions. Cities can take on an additional 4% for sewerage systems, and school districts can borrow up to 10% of assessed value for constructing, enlarging, or equipping school facilities.¹ At the local level too, any debt beyond current-year taxes must go to voters first.

Public Education Funding

Article 7 requires the legislature to create and maintain a “complete and uniform system of public instruction,” including free elementary schools, a state university with whatever professional departments the public good requires, and other necessary institutions.¹ The constitution does not merely permit public education. It mandates a complete system.

Funding sources are locked in. Revenue from the sale or lease of specific township lands, proceeds from lands granted by Congress, and money from estates without heirs all flow into a perpetual school fund. Only the annual income from the fund can be spent, preserving the principal indefinitely. Fines and penalties collected under state law go to each county’s public school fund for current operations.¹

Local Government and Charter Ordinances

Article 13 gives cities and towns authority over their own local affairs through ordinances, subject to statewide statutes that apply uniformly to all municipalities and to the debt limits in Article 16. All taxing, fee, and excise authority stays with the legislature; cities cannot create new revenue streams on their own.¹

A distinctive feature is the charter ordinance. By a two-thirds supermajority of its entire governing body, a city or town can exempt itself from specific state statutes that are not uniformly applicable to all municipalities. The ordinance must be published for two consecutive weeks and does not take effect for 60 days. Residents can force a referendum during that window by gathering signatures from at least 10% of voters who participated in the last municipal election.¹ Communities can tailor governance to local needs without the legislature passing special legislation for individual cities.

Changing the Constitution

Article 20 provides two paths for amendment, both designed to require broad agreement. The standard route is a legislative amendment: either chamber may propose a change, and if two-thirds of all elected members in each chamber vote in favor, the proposal goes to voters at the next general election. It must be published in at least one newspaper in every county for at least 12 consecutive weeks before that election, and a simple majority of those voting on the question ratifies it.¹ When multiple amendments appear on the same ballot, each must be presented separately so voters can accept or reject them individually.

The second path is a constitutional convention. Two-thirds of the elected members of each chamber must first agree that a convention is necessary, and the question then goes to voters at the next general election. If a majority of all voters casting ballots in that election approve, the legislature calls a convention at its next session, with at least twice as many delegates as the larger legislative chamber. Any new constitution produced has no legal force until it is separately submitted to voters and approved.¹ Wyoming has never used the convention process since statehood.

1
Wyoming Secretary of State. Constitution of the State of Wyoming
2
50 Constitutions. Wyoming Constitution – Declaration of Rights
3
FindLaw. Wyoming Constitution Art 1, Sect 24 – Right to Bear Arms
4
Wyoming State Library. Women’s Suffrage in Wyoming – Definition and Firsts
5
FindLaw. Wyoming Constitution Art 2, Sect 1 – Powers of Government Divided Into Three Departments
6
Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming Constitution Article 4 – Executive Department
7
FindLaw. Wyoming Constitution Art 5, Sect 4 – Supreme Court Justices
8
Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming Constitution Article 8 – Irrigation and Water Rights
9
50 Constitutions. Wyoming Constitution Article VIII Section 3 – Priority of Appropriation
10
50 Constitutions. Wyoming Constitution Article XV Section 19 – Mineral Excise Tax and Distribution