Wyoming Constitution: Rights, Government, and Amendments

The Wyoming Constitution is the foundational governing document of the State of Wyoming. It was adopted by a constitutional convention on September 30, 1889, ratified by voters on November 5, 1889, and took effect when Wyoming entered the Union as the 44th state on July 10, 1890.¹ It consists of a preamble and 21 articles, and it is best known for being the first state constitution admitted to the Union with women’s suffrage already written into it. It also goes into unusual detail on water rights, mineral taxation, and individual liberties that reach beyond the protections in the U.S. Constitution.

When It Was Written and Ratified

Territorial Governor Francis E. Warren called for a constitutional convention in June 1889. Delegates were elected that July, and forty-nine of the fifty-five elected delegates convened in the Territorial Supreme Court Chamber in Cheyenne on September 2, 1889. The delegation included 31 Republicans and 18 Democrats, and the convention finished its work in 25 working days.²

The resulting document was largely a “scissors-and-paste” compilation drawn from other state constitutions, with original work in the areas that mattered most to Wyoming: water rights and women’s suffrage. Delegates voted 37–0 to adopt it on the final day of the convention. Voters ratified it the following November, 6,272 in favor and 1,903 against. President Benjamin Harrison signed the statehood act on July 10, 1890.²

What’s in the Document

The constitution covers a far wider range of subjects, in far greater detail, than the U.S. Constitution. Its 21 articles are:¹

Article 1: Declaration of Rights
Article 2: Distribution of Powers
Article 3: Legislative Department
Article 4: Executive Department
Article 5: Judicial Department
Article 6: Suffrage and Elections
Article 7: Education; State Institutions; Promotion of Health and Morals; Public Buildings
Article 8: Irrigation and Water Rights
Article 9: Mines and Mining
Article 10: Corporations
Article 11: Boundaries
Article 12: County Organization
Article 13: Municipal Corporations
Article 14: Public Officers
Article 15: Taxation and Revenue
Article 16: Public Indebtedness
Article 17: State Militia
Article 18: Public Lands and Donations
Article 19: Miscellaneous
Article 20: Amendments
Article 21: Schedule

The articles on water, mining, and corporations reflect the economic realities of a western state built on ranching, mining, and agriculture. Provisions on county organization, municipal governance, taxation limits, and public debt go into operational detail that the federal constitution leaves entirely to statute.³

Rights Guaranteed to Wyoming Residents

Article 1 is Wyoming’s declaration of rights. It mirrors many protections in the federal Bill of Rights — freedom of speech and press, freedom of religion, protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to bear arms, jury trial, and due process — and adds several that have no federal equivalent.¹

Section 2 declares that “all members of the human race are equal” in their inherent rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Section 3 requires that laws affecting political rights apply “without distinction of race, color, sex, or any circumstance or condition whatsoever.” Section 29 bars legal distinctions between resident aliens and citizens in the possession, taxation, and enjoyment of property. Sections 15 and 16 require that the penal code be framed on “humane principles of reformation and prevention” and prohibit “unnecessary rigor” against people who are arrested or confined. Section 22 directs the legislature to enact laws securing proper rewards for labor. Section 31 places control of the state’s water in state hands, calling it essential to industrial prosperity and limited in supply.¹

Two newer sections were added by voters in 2012. Section 38 guarantees competent adults the right to make their own health care decisions and allows patients to pay health care providers directly without government-imposed penalties.⁴ Section 39 declares hunting, fishing, and trapping a “heritage that shall forever be preserved” to Wyoming citizens, subject to legislative regulation.¹

The constitution’s most historically significant provision is Article 6, Section 1, which states: “The rights of citizens of the State of Wyoming to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex. Both male and female citizens of this state shall equally enjoy all civil, political and religious rights and privileges.”⁵ The Wyoming Territory had enacted women’s suffrage by statute in 1869, and convention delegates were determined to preserve it at the highest level of state law.⁶ A motion to break women’s suffrage out as a separate ballot question was defeated 20 to 8, keeping it in the main document.⁷ The state’s Great Seal still carries a woman holding a banner reading “Equal Rights.”¹

How State Government Is Organized

The Legislature

Article 3 establishes a bicameral legislature. Senators must be at least 25 and serve four-year terms; representatives must be at least 21 and serve two-year terms. Both must be U.S. citizens and Wyoming residents who have lived in their county or district for at least twelve months before the election.⁸

The constitution puts unusually detailed restrictions on what the legislature can do. It prohibits local or special laws on subjects like school management, election procedures, and tax assessment. Revenue bills must originate in the House. General appropriation bills may cover only ordinary expenses and public school funding; all other appropriations must be made in separate single-subject bills. It bans legislative aid to railroads and prohibits appropriations to any entity not under absolute state control, including denominational or sectarian institutions.¹ Wyoming has an initiative and referendum process, but the constitution forbids its use to dedicate revenues or to make or repeal appropriations.⁹

The Executive

Article 4 vests executive power in a governor who serves a four-year term. The constitution also establishes four other elected executive officers: the secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and superintendent of public instruction. The state engineer and inspector of mines are constitutional offices filled by gubernatorial appointment.¹⁰

The governor commands the state’s military forces, holds the pardon and reprieve power, appoints department directors and members of roughly 130 boards and commissions, and reports on the condition of the state to the legislature at the start of each session. Under the Wyoming Government Reorganization Act of 1989, the executive is limited to no more than 15 principal departments beyond the elected constitutional offices.¹⁰

On the veto: the governor may sign a bill, veto and return it with objections, or let it become law without a signature after three days. A veto can be overridden by a two-thirds vote in each house. If the legislature adjourns before a bill is returned, the governor has fifteen days to file objections with the secretary of state; otherwise the bill becomes law.¹¹

The Courts

Article 5 establishes a judicial system headed by the Wyoming Supreme Court, with five justices. Wyoming has no intermediate appellate court, so appeals from trial courts go directly to the Supreme Court, which also holds general superintending control over the lower courts. At the trial level, district courts in nine judicial districts have general civil, criminal, and probate jurisdiction. Circuit courts, present in all 23 counties, and municipal courts handle limited jurisdiction matters.¹²

Wyoming uses a merit-based (Missouri Plan) selection system for Supreme Court justices and district judges. A seven-member Judicial Nominating Commission screens applicants and sends exactly three names to the governor, who has 30 days to pick one; if the governor does not, the chief justice makes the appointment. Judges then face nonpartisan retention elections. Supreme Court justices serve eight-year terms and district judges serve six-year terms between retention votes. Circuit court judges, in contrast, are chosen in nonpartisan elections and serve four-year terms.¹³

Water, Minerals, and Money

Few state constitutions give water as much attention as Wyoming’s. Article 8 declares that all water within the state, whether in natural streams, springs, lakes, or other bodies, is the property of the state. Rights follow a “first in time, first in right” priority system: earlier users hold superior rights when supply is short. Water rights attach to the land as property rights, but only so long as the water is put to “beneficial use,” which is the basis, measure, and limit of any water right. A right not exercised for five successive years when water is available can be legally abandoned.¹⁴

Article 8 creates the State Board of Control, made up of the state engineer and four water division superintendents, and splits the state into four water divisions. The state engineer is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate for a six-year term, serves as the chief water administrator, and presides over the board. Since statehood, all new water rights have been acquired by securing a permit from the state engineer; historic use or adverse possession alone cannot create a valid right. The constitution also allows eminent domain for “reservoirs, drains, flumes or ditches” needed for agricultural, mining, domestic, or sanitary purposes, with just compensation.¹⁵

Article 9 directs the appointment of an inspector of mines and mandates legislation for mine safety. Article 10 regulates corporations, including railroads and telegraph lines, and specifically prohibits trusts.³

Article 15 governs taxation. No tax may be imposed without the consent of the people or their representatives, and the article requires uniformity and equality in taxation.⁹ The 1889 convention settled on a “gross products tax” on produced minerals based on their value and let the legislature set the rates. A proposed constitutional severance tax failed in 1924 because it did not win a majority of all votes cast in the election, even though it carried among voters who weighed in on the question itself. The legislature finally enacted a statutory severance tax of one percent on all extractive minerals in 1969.¹⁶

In 1974, voters approved a constitutional amendment creating the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund by 78,842 to 32,414. It imposed a permanent 1.5 percent severance tax on coal, oil, natural gas, oil shale, and other designated minerals, on top of existing taxes. The fund’s principal is constitutionally “inviolate,” so only the interest and income may be spent. By June 2014, the fund’s market value had reached nearly $7 billion, and its annual interest had become the second-largest source of general fund revenue after sales tax.¹⁶

Education Provisions

Article 7 covers education, state institutions, and public welfare. State funds held for public school purposes are trust funds whose principal must be preserved; only interest and income may be used, and the legislature must provide for investment of the principal for the exclusive benefit of public schools.¹⁷ Article 1, Section 23 separately declares that “the right of the citizens to opportunities for education should have practical recognition” and directs the legislature to encourage the sciences and liberal arts.¹ Article 7 also provides for a state university, mandates school revenues, and makes tuition at the university free.³ Article 3, Section 36 reinforces that state appropriations for educational purposes cannot go to any entity not under the absolute control of the state or to any sectarian institution, a provision at the center of recent school-choice litigation.

How the Constitution Gets Amended

Article 20 sets the process for change. A proposed amendment must receive a two-thirds vote in each house of the legislature and then win a majority of voters at the next general election. A new constitution may also be proposed by a constitutional convention, with the convention’s product likewise requiring voter ratification.¹⁸

The document has been amended many times without being replaced. Earlier amendments addressed trial-by-jury provisions (ratified 1980), the rights of the accused (1976), legislator compensation and session rules (1972), and legislative removal procedures (1986).¹ In the 2012 general election, Amendment A added the health care access provision in Article 1, Section 38, passing 181,984 to 54,405. Amendment B added the hunting, fishing, and trapping provision in Article 1, Section 39, passing 212,561 to 25,564.¹⁹

How Courts Are Applying It Now

Two recent Wyoming Supreme Court decisions show the constitution in active use.

In January 2026, the court ruled in State v. Johnson that Wyoming’s abortion restrictions violated Article 1, Section 38. The court affirmed a district court’s permanent injunction against the “Life is a Human Right Act” and a companion law banning abortion medications, both enacted in 2023. It held that the laws “unjustifiably limit a woman’s state constitutional right to make her own health care decisions” and rejected the legislature’s attempt to define abortion as something other than health care, saying it is the judiciary’s role to define the scope of constitutional rights.²⁰²¹ The court overruled its prior use of the federal “no-set-of-circumstances” standard for facial constitutional challenges and applied strict scrutiny to laws burdening the health care decision-making right.

In May 2026, the court issued a unanimous ruling in Degenfelder v. Wyoming Education Association addressing a challenge to the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, a 2025 law establishing education savings accounts funded by $30 million from the general fund. Plaintiffs argued the program violated Article 7’s education provisions, Article 3, Section 36’s ban on appropriations to entities not under state control, and Article 16’s prohibition on state loans or donations. A district court had issued a preliminary injunction.²² The Supreme Court reversed the injunction, finding plaintiffs had not shown “personal and particularized” irreparable injury, since the individual plaintiffs had no intent to use the program and the general-fund source did not directly compromise public school funding. The court questioned the lower court’s application of strict scrutiny and noted that the ESA funds sit in an account under the direct control of the superintendent of public instruction, which could satisfy the state-control requirement. It said it was forming “no final opinion on the merits” and remanded for further proceedings.²³ The Wyoming Department of Education then reopened the program, which provides $7,000 per student annually for private education costs. Roughly 4,000 families had applied before the injunction.

1
Wyoming Secretary of State. Constitution of the State of Wyoming
2
WyoHistory.org. Wyoming Statehood
3
50 Constitutions. Wyoming Constitution
4
FindLaw. Wyoming Constitution Art. 1, § 38
5
FindLaw. Wyoming Constitution Art. 6, § 1
6
State Court Report. New Jersey’s Constitution Allowed Women to Vote in the 1700s
7
WyoHistory.org. Women’s Suffrage in the Wyoming Constitution
8
FindLaw. Wyoming Constitution Art. 3, § 2
9
Justia. Wyoming Constitution
10
Wyoming Legislature. Executive Branch Provisions
11
FindLaw. Wyoming Constitution Art. 4, § 8
12
Wyoming Legislature. State Court Structures and Judge Selection
13
Wyoming Legal Services Authority. Wyoming Judicial Selection and Retention
14
Wyoming Water Plan. Wyoming Water Law
15
Wyoming Legislature. Wyoming Water Law Appendix
16
WyoHistory.org. Wyoming Minerals, Severance Taxes, and Permanent Funds
17
FindLaw. Wyoming Constitution Art. 7, § 6
18
Justia. Wyoming Statutes § 22-20-101
19
Wyoming Secretary of State. 2012 Ballot Issues
20
FindLaw. State v. Johnson
21
American Bar Association. Wyoming Abortion Ban Unconstitutional
22
WyoFile. Wyoming Supreme Court Ends Block on Public Money for Private Education
23
FindLaw. Degenfelder v. Wyoming Education Association III