On February 12, a group of voters filed a lawsuit in Alabama state court, charging that the vote of the people in 1901 to establish the State Constitution was riddled with voter fraud, and that therefore the entire Constitution is invalid. See this story. The case is Houston v King, cv 2009-139, Jefferson County Circuit Court. Thanks to Ed Still of VoteLaw blog for the link.
Not at all surprising.
Look at the referendum that was presented to voters in New York State in 1960-something to eliminate “archaic language” from the Constitution, such as escheat/Indian lands. The important word that was eliminated was the word Alodial…from the Dutch, that guaranteed that citizens of New York State owned the land that they bought, were not beholden to a ruling political class, and it could not be taken away by the government, such as the royalty had the right to do in the countries they left behind to seek freedom. That right still exists in the U.S. Constitution….and I have been told that even if politicians eliminated the words before the people, they could not banish the right in the New York State Constitution. Very few people know about this….and many more would not care. Just another lost right taken away over time, right?
One right of the people of Alabama have under Amendment 90, was the right to annex foreign territory. This could be lost if that amendment
went out with the bath water. It had been long
thought to use Article 90 to add islands to the
state such as the ones ceded to the United States
by the Treaty of Paris, ending the war Spain.
Remember, that there are many islands around the
island of Cuba, ceded to the United States by the
goverment of Spain under the Treaty of Paris, which
currently have no home. Remember the issue that the Platt Amendment only applied to the island Cuba
and did not provide for the off shore islands. Remember further that U S Guano Islands are among
these islands.
It should be noted that a reason for Amendment 90
was to stop the general government from ceding the
Isla de la Juventud (as now known) to Republica de
Cuba. This cession happened during the 1920’s, but
only effected that one island. The remander islands still has no government, with the exception
of the laws governing those islands under the term of the Guano Islands Act of 1856.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman, American
Independent Party.
That’s one way to get a new constitution in Alabama.
Maybe the next one will not be the longest Constitution in the WORLD; nor need to be amended more that ny document in human history!