How Much Do You Know About State Constitutions and Courts? 

You might know when the U.S. Constitution was drafted, or maybe how many amendments it has (27!) And there’s a good chance you know how many justices sit on the U.S. Supreme Court and how they got their jobs. But what about your own state constitution and supreme court? There is fascinating diversity among the 50 states’ courts and constitutions. Here’s a chance to dig in and learn more about them.

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50 states, 50 constitutions, 50-plus high courts.

Every state has a constitution. (So do some territories and tribal nations.) But fewer than half of Americans don’t know their state has its own constitution.

Even fewer Americans know state constitutions often go beyond the federal Constitution in protecting individual rights on issues such as environmental quality, gender equality, and economic liberty.

Each state also has a high court, often — but not always — called the supreme court. The high court has the final word on questions of state constitutional law. 

In Oklahoma and Texas, there’s an additional wrinkle. They each have two high courts — one dedicated to civil cases and the other to criminal issues.

Most state high court justices are men.

As of May 2024, 57 percent of state supreme court justices were men. In five states, only one woman sits on the supreme court bench: Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, and South Carolina . Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, six out of seven justices on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court are women — the highest percentage of women on a state high court.

In 19 states, no justices identify as a person of color, including in 13 states where people of color make up at least 20 percent of the population. Thirty-eight percent of sitting justices are former prosecutors, while only nine percent are former public defenders.

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Nearly two out of three states have rewritten their constitutions at least once.

In the history of the United States, there has been only one constitutional convention, which took place over four months in Philadelphia in 1787. In contrast, nearly two-thirds of states have rewritten their constitutions at least once, according to unpublished data collected by John Dinan, a professor at Wake Forest University. Seventeen have adopted new constitutions three or more times. The trend of adopting new state constitutions tends to come in waves — in the 18-year period between 1964 and 1982, 10 states adopted new constitutions. Since then, only Georgia, Rhode Island, and Alabama have done so.

Of the states that still use their original constitutions, Massachusetts’s is the oldest. Adopted in 1780, it is the world’s oldest functioning written constitution.

On average, state constitutions are more than nine times longer than the U.S. Constitution.

Every single state constitution is longer than the U.S. Constitution, which consists of 4,543 words. Alabama has the longest constitution, by far, with approximately 373,000 words — longer than most Stephen King’s novels. (Only The Stand and It are longer.) Texas’s constitution is the runner-up, with 92,345 words, according to Dinan.

Why such verbosity? State constitutions tend to go into far more detail about daily life, delving into areas where the U.S. Constitution is brief or even silent. For example, New Mexico’s constitution devotes a whole section to irrigation and water rights— not atypical for a water-starved western state. The U.S. Constitution, in contrast, only mentions water once, when it briefly states Congress’s authority “to make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.”

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The median number of amendments to state constitutions is 124 — nearly five times as many as the U.S. Constitution’s 27.

The process to amend the U.S. Constitution is arduous. It starts with Congress or a constitutional convention proposing an amendment, which then must be ratified by at least three-fourths of the states. Amending state constitutions tends to be simpler, and voters have direct influence at the ballot box. 

In every state, the legislature may propose amendments — and with the exception of Delaware, these must then be placed on the ballot for voter approval. In 17 states, voters are able to place amendments on the ballot directly, after collecting signatures in support of the measure according to state rules and meeting other requirements. California’s constitution has the most amendments, with 542 as of January 1, 2025, according to Dinan. In 2024, state legislators and voters approved a total of 75 amendments to49 state constitutions — the only state without a new amendment was Ohio.

State constitutional scholar John Dinan argues that the ease with which state constitutions can be amended has made them engines for social change on issues ranging from religious liberty to the right to bear arms. Amendments can also reflect the unique ways different states approach problems: In 2021, for example, Maine became the first state to approve a state constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to grow, produce and consume food for “nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being.” Supporters said it would help fight hunger in the state. 

In more than half of the states, voters choose their high court judges. 

State constitutions dictate how judges are selected for their state’s highest courts. In more than half — 38 — elections are used as part of state judicial selection. Most judicial elections are nonpartisan elections in which candidates do not run with a party affiliation. 

Eight states, however, host partisan elections for their highest courts: Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas, as well as New Mexico, which uses a hybrid system. There, judges are first appointed by the governor, and then they must compete in a partisan race in the next general election. 

In 26 states (many of which use elections when justices seek additional terms) and Washington, DC, the governor appoints justices to the state high courts, usually with the assistance of a nominating commission. In Virginia and South Carolina, the legislature selects state supreme court justices. 

In four states — Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi — judges on the highest court are selected from specific geographic districts or judicial circuits within those states.

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State constitutions are part of the warp and weave of our nation’s democracy. Visit your state page on State Court Report to find the text of your state’s constitution. You may be surprised to find out what it contains — and be inspired about what shape it might take in the future.

Nancy Watzman is a consultant working with State Court Report.