The State Constitutional

Convention Clearinghouse

U.S. states where the people can use a periodic state constitutional convention referendum to bypass the legislature's gatekeeping power over constitutional amendment

How U.S. States Got Their First Constitutions

 

The Constitution allows Congress to admit new states into the United States. Congress has exercised this power 37 times since 1791, when the United States already consisted of 13 states.

wdt_ID State 1st Constitution Entered Union Independent Convention? Popular Ratification?
1 Delaware 1776 12/07/1787 N
2 Pennsylvania 1776 12/12/1787 N
3 New Jersey 1776 12/18/1787 N
4 Georgia 1777 01/02/1788 N
5 Connecticut++ 1818 01/09/1788 Y
6 Massachusetts 1780 02/06/1788 Y
7 Maryland 1776 04/28/1788 N
8 South Carolina 1776 05/23/1788 N
9 New Hampshire 1776 06/21/1788 N
10 Virginia 1776 06/25/1788 N
11 New York 1777 07/26/1788 N
12 North Carolina 1776 11/21/1789 N
13 Rhode Island++ 1842 05/29/1790 Y
14 Vermont 1777 03/04/1791 N
15 Kentucky 1792 06/01/1792 N
16 Tennessee 1796 06/01/1796 N
17 Ohio 1802 03/01/1803 N
18 Louisiana 1812 04/30/1812 N
19 Indiana 1816 12/11/1816 Y N
20 Mississippi 1817 12/10/1817 N
21 Illinois 1818 12/03/1818 N
22 Alabama 1819 12/14/1819 N
23 Maine 1819 03/14/1820 Y Y
24 Missouri 1820 08/10/1821 N
25 Arkansas+++ 1836 06/15/1836 N
26 Michigan 1835 01/26/1837 Y Y
27 Florida 1839 03/03/1845 Y Y
28 Texas 1845 12/29/1845 Y Y
29 Iowa 1846 12/28/1846 Y Y
30 Wisconsin 1848 05/29/1848 Y Y
31 California 1849 09/09/1850 Y Y
32 Minnesota 1857 05/11/1858 Y Y
33 Oregon 1857 02/14/1859 Y Y
34 Kansas 1859 01/29/1861 Y Y
35 West Virginia 1863 06/20/1863 Y Y
36 Nevada 1864 10/31/1864 Y Y
37 Nebraska 1886 03/01/1867 Y Y
38 Colorado 1876 08/01/1876 Y Y
39 North Dakota 1889 11/02/1889 Y Y
40 South Dakota 1889 11/02/1889 Y Y
41 Montana 1889 11/08/1889 Y Y
42 Washington 1889 07/03/1890 Y Y
43 Idaho 1889 07/03/1890 Y Y
44 Wyoming 1889 07/10/1890 Y Y
45 Utah 1895 01/04/1896 Y Y
46 Oklahoma 1907 11/16/1907 Y Y
47 New Mexico 1912 01/06/1912 Y Y
48 Arizona 1911 02/14/1912 Y Y
49 Alaska 1956 01/03/1959 Y Y
50 Hawaii 1950 08/21/1959 Y Y
State 1st Constitution Entered Union Independent Convention? Popular Ratification?

Notes:

Major sources for this chart were Albert Sturm’s Thirty Years of State Constitution-Making, National Municipal League, 1970, and Admission of States to the Union: A Historical Reference Guide, CRS, Oct. 6, 2023.

*Legislature initiated, proposed, and ratified constitution.

**Legislature in one session initiated and proposed. After an inverting election, a second legislature ratified.

+ Connecticut and Rhode Island continued using their colonial charters after the U.S. became independent of Great Britain. Not until many years later did they write their own constitutions.

++ Legislature failed to provide an opportunity for voters to vote on whether to call a convention. But note that this is not initiation power in that the legislature determines whether to put the question on the ballot.

+++ On the ratification vote, some Arkansas counties allowed voters to express an opinion about statehood on their ballots. But the vote wasn’t mandatory and wasn’t specifically to ratify the proposed state constitution.