Tracking Arizona's Constitution

Arizona had one of the longest roads to statehood in the nation. Originally a part of the New Mexico Territory, the Arizona Territory was established in 1863. The relative sparsity of Anglo-American residents in the territory stood as a major barrier to the state’s admission to the Union. However, the territory nonetheless began lobbying for statehood as early as 1872. Nearly 20 years later, in 1891, residents of the territory organized a convention, drafted a constitution, and petitioned Congress for admission. This petition was denied, and in 1903, Congress proposed admitting the New Mexico and Arizona Territories as a single state. Arizonans opposed the idea, in part due to the different racial demographics of the two territories. Having rejected Congress’s proposal, Arizona was not authorized to become a state until 1910.

The Arizona Enabling Act placed numerous restrictions on the contents of the Arizona Constitution. These restrictions assuaged Congressional and presidential fears of the “rising tide of radicalism in the West,” a movement exemplified by the Oklahoma Constitution’s inclusion of the initiative and referendum power, Oregon’s adoption of the recall power, and Colorado’s push for direct primaries and railroad regulation. The enabling act also required the inclusion of certain provisions in the state’s constitution, such as a prohibition against polygamy and conditions for the management of federally-granted lands, and directed the convention to draft these provisions in a way that would prevent future amendments without Congress’s consent. 

The final barrier to Arizona’s statehood was an attempt to include the recall power, including recall of judges, in the Arizona Constitution. Anticipating President Taft’s opposition to the provision, Congress made Arizona statehood conditional on an immediate popular vote on whether to retain the judicial recall provision. But Taft was dissatisfied with this compromise, as it allowed the possibility that the judicial recall provision would remain in the constitution, and vetoed the resolution admitting Arizona to the Union. Congress then conditioned Arizona’s admission on voters rejecting the judicial recall provision. With this condition looming, voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment exempting judges from the recall provision and Arizona finally became a state on February 14, 1912.

The Arizona Constitution can be amended in three ways: legislative proposal, citizen initiative, and constitutional convention. Legislatively proposed amendments must be approved by a majority of members of both chambers of the legislature. Initiated amendment proposals must gather the signatures of qualified electors equal to 15 percent of votes in the last gubernatorial race. Finally, the legislature may call a constitutional convention, which may propose amendments or a new constitution. All three methods require that proposals be approved by a majority of voters voting on the proposal.