It has become common to do a little housecleaning with the state constitution every two years. (Indeed, it’s not impossible to see the need for a constitutional convention and a real makeover, but we’ll leave that for later.) This is one of those years when state officials are asking voters to remove obsolete provisions from three sections of the Constitution.
We recently reviewed these old provisions and urge voters to clear the debris by voting “yes” on Referendum G.
Take “militia duty,” for example.
Referendum G would strike a line in Article XVII, Section 5, that requires individuals with a moral objection to war to pay a fee to be exempt from militia duty during times of peace.
Quaint. Requiring payment for an exemption from military service dates back to the colonial era and generally ended around the Civil War. Colorado’s early draft constitutions were written during the Civil War era when exemption fees were still in practice. The Constitution itself was adopted in 1876 with the provision left in even though by then, the practice generally had ended.
Or take Denver Public Schools.
Referendum G would do away with references in Article XX to long-outdated requirements and dates for the consolidation of several City and County of Denver school districts into a single school district.
In fact, the consolidation was completed in 1901. The provision to be eliminated had to do with the interim process that was needed to accomplish the merger.
Or the state’s Old Age Pension Fund.
In Article XXIV, references to dates that have passed would be stricken along with references to gender and an outdated statutory provision regarding the Old Age Pension Fund. None of the changes have a fiscal impact.
Constitutional preservationists believe that all provisions of the Constitution have historical significance, and they might worry that removing them will diminish the document’s historic character and make research more difficult. We see the Constitution as a living document (there are seven other amendments on this year’s ballot alone), but older versions would still contain the original provisions – with a source note inserted to guide researchers.
This seems as good a time as any to sweep away the proposed obsolete provisions identified by lawmakers, former lawmakers and others who take time to scrutinize the Constitution.
