Constitutional Revision: Are Seriatim Amendments or Constitutional Conventions the Better Way to Amend a State Constitution?
By Ann M. Lousin.
The fifty American states may amend their constitutions in two ways. First, the states can submit individual amendments to the voters. Usually, the legislature drafts each amendment, adopts it, and submits it to the voters for their approval. In those states that allow the initiative process, a group of voters sign a petition containing the proposed constitutional language and, if they obtain enough signatures, the state government submits the amendment to all of the voters for their approval. Second, the states can hold a constitutional convention to consider revisions of the constitution on either a limited or plenary basis.
Which method is better? In my forty years of researching Illinois constitutional issues and observing other states, I have learned that there are advantages and disadvantages to each method. Sometimes I recommend the first choice, serial amendments, and sometimes I recommend the second choice, a convention.