Additions and Amendments to California’s Constitution

To preface this brief article, I readily admit to being a legislative geek as I read and researched our state’s constitution. The current (and second) California Constitution was adopted in 1879. The first one was adopted in 1849, the year before California became a state.

Several of its original sections remain unchanged since their adoption 146 years ago. Of course, while the Legislature or the people can place constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot, they are adopted by a majority vote of the electors. By my calculation, there have been just over 355 changes to the state Constitution since its original adoption in 1879.

By my count, the current state Constitution contains 32 Articles and 371 sections. Note that 11 of those Articles have been added in their entirety and not changed since their adoption.

Contained in those 32 Articles are 243 added sections and 113 amended sections since 1879, as well as 21 renumbered sections. There are 3 sections that remain as adopted.