STATE PROJECTS

State Constitutions

The creation of federal landmarks, such as the 1787 Constitution and the Bill of Rights, tells only a small part of the story of US constitutional development. Over 235 de novo constitutions have been created in state constitutional conventions since 1776, and most have been amended dozens or even hundreds of times. This number does not include the many constitutional conventions held by native peoples and that also form an important part of US constitutional history. Despite their continued importance in governing the day-to-day lives of US citizens, including recent calls from the Supreme Court to pay greater attention to these texts, State constitutional conventions have received scant academic attention, in part because of the neglected and scattered state of the relevant archives and in part because of the previous difficulty of making the records of such processes easily intelligible even if collated and edited.

Quill’s central aim in the coming decade is therefore to model the work of the 50 state conventions that created the currently operative state constitutions, and thus those with most immediate legal implications. Thereafter, we plan to model the work of all the conventions held throughout the history of the United States to chart the development across time and place of fundamental constitutional law. Just as editorial work at the start of the twentieth century transformed understanding of the origins of Federal, Quill will transform access to and the utility of neglected documents that elucidate the basis of the US political system.

Building on the model pioneered in our partnership with UVU, we are seeking to build collaborative relationships with universities close to the relevant archives in order to achieve this ambitious target.