Washington State Constitution
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[edit] Preamble
We, the people of the State of Washington, grateful to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for our liberties, do ordain this constitution.
[edit] Article I - Declaration of Rights
Section 1 - Political Power
All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.
Section 2 - Supreme Law of the Land
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land.
Section 3 - Personal Rights
No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
Section 4 - Right of Petition and Assemblage
The right of petition and of the people peaceably to assemble for the common good shall never be abridged.
Section 5 - Freedom of Speech
Every person may freely speak, write and publish on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right.
Section 6 - Oaths-Mode of Administering
The mode of administering an oath, or affirmation, shall be such as may be most consistent with and binding upon the conscience of the person to whom such oath, or affirmation, may be administered.
Section 7 - Invasion of Private Affairs or Home Prohibited
No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law.
Section 8 - Irrevocable Privilege, Franchise, or Immunity Prohibited
No law granting irrevocably any privilege, franchise or immunity, shall be passed by the legislature.
Section 9 - Rights of Accused Persons
No person shall be compelled in any criminal case to give evidence against himself, or be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense.
Section 10 - Administration of Justice
Justice in all cases shall be administered openly, and without unnecessary delay.
Section 11 - Religious Freedom
Absolute freedom of conscience in all matters of religious sentiment, belief, and worship, shall be guaranteed to every individual, and no one shall be molested or disturbed in person, or property, on account of religion; but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of licentiousness, or justify practices inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state. No public money or property shall be appropriated for, or applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction, or the support of any religious establishment. No religious qualification shall be required for any public office, or employment, nor shall any person be incompetent as a witness, or juror, in consequence of his opinion on matters of religion, nor be questioned in any court of justice touching his religious belief to affect the weight of his testimony.
Section 12 - Special Privileges and Immunities Prohibited
No law shall be passed granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, privileges or immunities which upon the same terms shall not equally belong to all citizens, or corporations.
Section 13 - Habeas Corpus
The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless in case of rebellion or invasion the public safety requires it.
Section 14 - Excessive Bail, Fines and Punishment
Excessive bail shall not be required, excessive fines imposed, nor cruel punishment inflicted.
Section 15 - Convictions, Effect of
No conviction shall work corruption of blood, nor forfeiture of estate.
Section 16 - Eminent Domain
Private property shall not be taken for private use, except for private ways of necessity, and for drains, flumes or ditches on or across the lands of others for agricultural, domestic or sanitary purposes. No private property shall be taken or damaged for public or private use without just compensation having first been made, or paid into court for the owner, and no right of way shall be appropriated to the use of any corporation other than municipal, until full compensation therefor be first made in money, or ascertained and paid into the court for the owner, irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation, which compensation shall be ascertained by a jury, unless a jury be waived as in other civil cases in courts of record, in the manner prescribed by law. Whenever an attempt is made to take private property for a use alleged to be public, the question whether the contemplated use be really public shall be a judicial question, and determined as such without regard to any legislative assertion that the use is public.
Section 17 - Imprisonment for Debt
There shall be no imprisonment for debt, except in cases of absconding debtors.
Section 18 - Military Power, Limitation of
The military shall be in strict subordination to the civil power.
Section 19 - Freedom of Elections
All Elections shall be free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.
Section 20 - Bail, When Authorized
All persons charged with crime shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident, or the presumption great.
Section 21 - Trial by Jury
The right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate, but the legislature may provide for a jury of any number less than twelve in courts not of record, and for a verdict by nine or more jurors in civil cases in any court of record, and for waiving of the jury in civil cases where the consent of the parties interested is given thereto.
Section 22 - Rights of Accused Persons
In criminal prosecution, the accused shall have the right to appear and defend in person, and by counsel, to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, to have a copy thereof, to testify in his own behalf, to meet the witnesses against him face to face, to have compulsory process to compel the attendance of witnesses in his own behalf, to have a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county in which the offense is alleged to have been committed, and the right to appeal in all cases; and, in no instance, shall any accused person before final judgment be compelled to advance money or fees to secure the rights herein guaranteed.
Section 23 - Bill of Attainder, Ex Post Facto Law, Etc.
No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligations of contracts shall ever be passed.
Section 24 - Right to Bear Arms
The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this Section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men.
Section 25 - Prosecution by Information
Offenses heretofore required to be prosecuted by indictment may be prosecuted by information, or by indictment, as shall be prescribed by law.
Section 26 - Grand Jury
No grand jury shall be drawn or summoned in any county, except the superior judge thereof shall so order.
Section 27 - Treason, Defined, Etc.
Treason against the state shall consist only in levying war against the state, or adhering to its enemies, or in giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or confession in open court.
Section 28 - Hereditary Privileges Abolished
No hereditary emoluments, privileges, or powers, shall be granted or conferred in this state.
Section 29 - Constitution Mandatory
The provisions of this Constitution are mandatory, unless by express words they are declared to be otherwise.
Section 30 - Rights Reserved
The enumeration in this Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny others retained by the people.
Section 31 - Standing Army
No standing army shall be kept up by this state in time of peace, and no soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of its owner, nor in time of war except in the manner prescribed by law.
Section 32 - Fundamental Principles
A frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is essential to the security of individual right and the perpetuity of free government.
[edit] Article II - Legislative Department
Section 1 - Legislative Powers, Where Vested
The legislative powers shall be vested in a senate and house of representatives, which shall be called the legislature of the State of Washington.
Section 2 - House of Representatives and Senate
The house of representatives shall be composed of not less than sixty-three nor more than ninety-nine members. The number of senators shall not be more than one-half nor less than one-third of the number of members of the house of representatives. The first legislature shall be composed of seventy members of the house of representatives, and thirty-five senators.
Section 3 - The Census
The legislature shall provide by law for an enumeration of the inhabitants of the state in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five and every ten years thereafter; and at the first session after such enumeration, and also after each enumeration made by the authority of the United States, the legislature shall apportion and district anew the members of the senate and house of representatives, according to the number of inhabitants, excluding Indians not taxed, soldiers, sailors and officers of the United States army and navy in active service.
Section 4 - Election of Representatives and Term of Office
Members of the house of representatives shall be elected in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-nine at the time and in the manner provided by this Constitution, and shall hold their offices for the term of one year and until their successors shall be elected.
Section 5 - Elections, When to be Held
The next election of the members of the house of representatives after the adoption of this Constitution shall be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, eighteen hundred and ninety, and thereafter, members of the house of representatives shall be elected biennially and their term of office shall be two years; and each election shall be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, unless otherwise changed by law.
Section 6 - Election and Term of Office of Senators
After the first election the senators shall be elected by single districts of convenient and contiguous territory, at the same time and in the same manner as members of the house of representatives are required to be elected; and no representative district shall be divided in the formation of a senatorial district. They shall be elected for the term of four years, one-half of their number retiring every two years. The senatorial districts shall be numbered consecutively, and the senators chosen at the first election had by virtue of this Constitution, in odd numbered districts, shall go out of office at the end of the first year; and the senators, elected in the even numbered districts, shall go out of office at the end of the third year.
Section 7 - Qualification of Legislators
No person shall be eligible to the legislature who shall not be a citizen of the United States and a qualified voter in the district for which he is chosen.
Section 8 - Judges of Their Own Election and Qualification-Quorum
Each house shall be the judge of the election, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day and may compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each house may provide.
Section 9 - Rules of Procedure
Each house may determine the rules of its own proceedings, punish for contempt and disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected, expel a member, but no member shall be expelled a second time for the same offense.
Section 10 - Election of Officers
Each house shall elect its own officers; and when the lieutenant governor shall not attend as president, or shall act as governor, the senate shall choose a temporary president. When presiding, the lieutenant governor shall have the deciding vote in case of an equal division of the senate.
Section 11 - Journal, Publicity of Meetings-Adjournments
Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings and publish the same, except such parts as require secrecy. The doors of each house shall be kept open, except when the public welfare shall require secrecy. Neither house shall adjourn for more than three days, nor to any place other than that in which they may be sitting, without the consent of the other.
Section 12 - Sessions, When-Duration
The first legislature shall meet on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in November, A. D., 1889. The second legislature shall meet on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in January, A. D., 1891, and sessions of the legislature shall be held biennially thereafter, unless specially convened by the governor, but the times of meeting of subsequent sessions may be changed by the legislature. After the first legislature the sessions shall not be more than sixty days.
Section 13 - Limitation on Members Holding Office in the State
No member of the legislature, during the term for which he is elected, shall be appointed or elected to any civil office in the state, which shall have been created, or the emoluments of which shall have been increased, during the term for which he was elected.
Section 14 - Same, Federal or Other Office
No person, being a member of congress, or holding any civil or military office under the United States or any other power, shall be eligible to be a member of the legislature; and if any person after his election as a member of the legislature, shall be elected to congress or be appointed to any other office, civil or military, under the government of the United States, or any other power, his acceptance thereof shall vacate his seat, provided, that officers in the militia of the state who receive no annual salary, local officers and postmasters, whose compensation does not exceed three hundred dollars per annum, shall not be ineligible.
Section 15 - Writs of Election to Fill Vacancies
The governor shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies as may occur in either house of the legislature.
Section 16 - Privileges From Arrest
Members of the legislature shall be privileged from arrest in all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace; they shall not be subject to any civil process during the session of the legislature, nor for fifteen days next before the commencement of each session.
Section 17 - Freedom of Debate
No member of the legislature shall be liable in any civil action or criminal prosecution whatever, for words spoken in debate.
Section 18 - Style of Laws
The style of the laws of the state shall be: "Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Washington." And no laws shall be enacted except by bill.
Section 19 - Bill to Contain One Subject
No bill shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title.
Section 20 - Origin and Amendment of Bills
Any bill may originate in either house of the legislature, and a bill passed by one house may be amended in the other.
Section 21 - Yeas and Nays
The yeas and nays of the members of either house shall be entered on the journal, on the demand of one-sixth of the members present.
Section 22 - Passage of Bills
No bill shall become a law unless on its final passage the vote be taken by yeas and nays, the names of the members voting for and against the same be entered on the journal of each house, and a majority of the members elected to each house be recorded thereon as voting in its favor.
Section 23 - Compensation of Members
Each member of the legislature shall receive for his services five dollars for each day's attendance during the session, and ten cents for every mile he shall travel in going to and returning from the place of meeting of the legislature, on the most usual route.
Section 24 - Lotteries and Divorce
The legislature shall never authorize any lottery or grant any divorce.
Section 25 - Extra Compensation, Prohibited
The legislature shall never grant any extra compensation to any public officer, agent, servant, or contractor, after the services shall have been rendered, or the contract entered into, nor shall the compensation of any public officer be increased or diminished during his term of office.
Section 26 - Suits Against the State
The legislature shall direct by law, in what manner, and in what courts, suits may be brought against the state.
Section 27 - Elections-Viva Voce Vote
In all elections by the legislature the members shall vote viva voce, and their votes shall be entered on the journal.
Section 28 - Special Legislation
The legislature is prohibited from enacting any private or special laws in the following cases:
- For changing the names of persons, or constituting one person the heir at law of another.
- For laying out, opening or altering highways, except in cases of state roads extending into more than one county, and military roads to aid in the construction of which lands shall have been or may be granted by congress.
- For authorizing persons to keep ferries wholly within this state.
- For authorizing the sale or mortgage of real or personal property of minors, or others under disability.
- For assessment or collection of taxes, or for extending the time for collection thereof.
- For granting corporate powers or privileges.
- For authorizing the apportionment of any part of the school fund.
- For incorporating any town or village or to amend the charter thereof.
- From giving effect to invalid deeds, wills or other instruments.
- Releasing or extinguishing in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability or other obligation, of any person, or corporation to this state, or to any municipal corporation therein.
- Declaring any person of age or authorizing any minor to sell, lease, or encumber his or her property.
- Legalizing, except as against the state, the unauthorized or invalid act of any officer.
- Regulating the rates of interest on money.
- Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures.
- Providing for the management of common schools.
- Authorizing the adoption of children.
- For limitation of civil or criminal actions.
- Changing county lines, locating or changing county seats, provided, this shall not be construed to apply to the creation of new counties.
Section 29 - Convict Labor
After the first day of January eighteen hundred and ninety the labor of convicts of this state shall not be let out by contract to any person, copartnership, company or corporation, and the legislature shall by law provide for the working of convicts for the benefit of the state.
Section 30 - Bribery or Corrupt Solicitation
The offense of corrupt solicitation of members of the legislature, or of public officers of the state or any municipal division thereof, and any occupation or practice of solicitation of such members or officers to influence their official action, shall be defined by law, and shall be punished by fine and imprisonment. Any person may be compelled to testify in any lawful investigation or judicial proceeding against any person who may be charged with having committed the offense of bribery or corrupt solicitation, or practice of solicitation, and shall not be permitted to withhold his testimony on the ground that it may criminate himself or subject him to public infamy, but such testimony shall not afterwards be used against him in any judicial proceeding - except for perjury in giving such testimony - and any person convicted of either of the offenses aforesaid, shall as part of the punishment therefor, be disqualified from ever holding any position of honor, trust or profit in this state. A member who has a private interest in any bill or measure proposed or pending before the legislature, shall disclose the fact to the house of which he is a member, and shall not vote thereon.
Section 31 - Laws, When to Take Effect
No law, except appropriation bills, shall take effect until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which it was enacted, unless in case of an emergency (which emergency must be expressed in the preamble or in the body of the act) the legislature shall otherwise direct by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house; said vote to be taken by yeas and nays and entered on the journals.
Section 32 - Laws, How Signed
No bill shall become a law until the same shall have been signed by the presiding officer of each of the two houses in open session, and under such rules as the legislature shall prescribe.
Section 33 - Ownership of Lands by Aliens, Prohibited
The ownership of lands by aliens, other than those who in good faith have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, is prohibited in this state, except where acquired by inheritance, under mortgage or in good faith in the ordinary course of justice in the collection of debts; and all conveyances of lands hereafter made to any alien directly or in trust for such alien shall be void: Provided, That the provisions of this Section shall not apply to lands containing valuable deposits of minerals, metals, iron, coal, or fire-clay, and the necessary land for mills and machinery to be used in the development thereof and the manufacture of the products therefrom. Every corporation, the majority of the capital stock of which is owned by aliens, shall be considered on alien for the purposes of this prohibition.
Section 34 - Bureau of Statistics, Agriculture and Immigration
There shall be established in the office of the secretary of state, a bureau of statistics, agriculture and immigration, under such regulations as the legislature may provide.
Section 35 - Protection of Employees
The legislature shall pass necessary laws for the protection of persons working in mines, factories and other employments dangerous to life or deleterious to health; and fix pains and penalties for the enforcement of the same.
Section 36 - When Bills Must Be Introduced
No bill shall be considered in either house unless the time of its introduction shall have been at least ten days before the final adjournment of the legislature, unless the legislature shall otherwise direct by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, said vote to be taken by yeas and nays and entered upon the journal, or unless the same be at a special session.
Section 37 - Revision or Amendment
No act shall ever be revised or amended by mere reference to its title, but the act revised or the Section amended shall be set forth at full length.
Section 38 - Limitation on Amendments
No amendment to any bill shall be allowed which shall change the scope and object of the bill.
Section 39 - Free Transportation to Public Officer Prohibited
It shall not be lawful for any person holding public office in this state to accept or use a pass or to purchase transportation from any railroad or other corporation, other than as the same may be purchased by the general public, and the legislature shall pass laws to enforce this provision.
