Kentucky’s Constitution: From Open Frontier to Fiercely Independent

This essay is part of a 50-state series about the nation’s constitutions. We’ve asked an expert from each state to dive into their constitution, narrate its history, identify its quirks, and summarize its most essential components for our readers.

Until 1776, the land that would eventually become Kentucky was a wilderness without colonial political organization. That year, however, it became a county — later called the District of Kentucky — in the state of Virginia. From the beginning, different factions favored making Kentucky an independent state, in large part because of land title and property ownership disputes. As the population of the territory grew, so did its list of grievances, such as inadequate representation in the legislature, the difficulty of the judicial appeals process, and the fact that it took significant time for the district to receive new statutes after they had been adopted. Virginia realized that the distance to Kentucky made it difficult to govern effectively and took the position that it would be happy to grant the state its independence once the parties agreed on terms.

Forming a State Out of a Wilderness

Kentucky secured its independence from Virginia in 1792 through an agreement known as the Virginia Compact. Under this agreement, this new state of Kentucky assumed Virginia’s part of existing federal debt. The compact also authorized Kentucky’s first constitutional convention, held in Danville that same year.

This first constitution, drafted by individuals elected by popular vote and lacking political or legal experience, was largely copied from the Pennsylvania Constitution. The framers viewed this initial constitution as a draft and set a process to call another constitutional convention less than a decade later. Yet, there were some innovations in the founding document. For example, it included provisions related to the separation of powers that were written by Thomas Jefferson. These provisions, which Jefferson believed should have been included in the federal Constitution, explicitly stated that the “powers of government shall be divided into three distinct departments” and that “no person or collection of persons, being of one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others.” In contrast, the separation of powers in the federal Constitution is merely implied. These strong separation-of-powers provisions have remained in Kentucky’s constitution to the present day.

Seven years later, in 1799, Kentucky adopted its second constitution, revising the first to address issues that that had arisen since its enactment. Because these delegates had more confidence in the document they had drafted, they made it more difficult to amend or revise.

This second constitution continued in effect until 1850, when the state enacted its third. This one contained many pro-slavery provisions, such as a clause that prohibited the state legislature, called the General Assembly, from passing any laws to emancipate enslaved people and a law that required any newly emancipated Black person to leave Kentucky or be charged with a felony. It also recognized a legal property interest in people and banned ministers from serving in the legislature because it viewed them as leaders of anti-slavery movements.

These and other pro-slavery sections were removed in Kentucky’s fourth constitution, enacted in 1891 and in effect today. Although the General Assembly has on several occasions approved legislation that allowed Kentuckians to vote on whether to call another constitutional convention, each of these efforts has failed to gain the necessary popular support.

Clear Government Structure

Kentucky’s current constitution provides structure for the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The General Assembly is divided into two chambers. The House of Representatives consists of 100 members elected every two years, and the Senate’s 38 members serve four-year terms. Unlike the federal Constitution, which delineates the powers granted to the legislative body, the Kentucky Constitution contains no such provision. Any act of the General Assembly is presumed valid unless there is a constitutional provision that prohibits it.

The Kentucky Constitution establishes a unified judicial system consisting of four levels: the district court, the circuit court, the court of appeals, and the supreme court. All judges and justices are elected in nonpartisan elections and serve an eight-year term, except for district court judges, who serve four-year terms. Each judge or justice is elected from a particular district — there are no members of the judiciary who are elected by the entire state. Kentucky’s high court consists of seven justices elected from the state’s seven supreme court districts.

The executive branch is headed by an elected governor who is charged to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Other executive branch positions independently elected include the treasurer, auditor of public accounts, commissioner of agriculture, secretary of state, and attorney general. This plural executive model means that the governor must share power with other separately elected officials.

In recent years, it has not been unusual for elected members of the executive branch to be from different political parties, creating legal challenges related to the scope and duties of each office. Notably, there have been several instances where the attorney general has sued the governor for actions that the former believes are unconstitutional. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the attorney general claimed the governor’s executive orders were too broad and infringed on the power of the legislative branch. Similarly, a previous attorney general sued the sitting governor for unilaterally abolishing and reorganizing several state boards that, according to the attorney general, exceeded the governor’s constitutional and statutory authority.

Kentucky’s current constitution evidences the concerns of the people at the time it was enacted. One major concern at the 1890 convention was the role of the legislature. Previously, the General Assembly spent much of its time focused on legislation with a local impact: In 1887, the body approved 1,403 private and local statutes and only 168 statutes of general applicability. In response, the new constitution banned “special legislation,” — in other words, legislation meant to benefit or harm only one person or business — forcing the General Assembly to pass laws of broad applicability. The new constitution also set up additional checks on legislative power, such as requiring amendments to bills to be published in full instead of by title only. It also limited legislative sessions to 60 days in alternating years.

The number of counties was another cause for concern. By the 1890 convention, Kentucky had 119 counties. Today it has 120, the fourth most counties of any state in the nation. The small size of these counties meant that many could not support themselves and relied on the state for funding. Size also contributed to stoking family and political rivalries, including the Rowan County War of 1884–87 and the famous Hatfield-McCoy feud. The new constitution granted the legislature the ability to limit the number of counties in the state.

It also included several populist provisions. Prior to this convention, powerful railroads often charged discriminatory rates to small farmers, giving better rates to large companies instead. Railroads, with money and political connections, had also lobbied the General Assembly for other types of special treatment, such as an exemption from tort liability toward injured parties. Kentuckians were also concerned about the legislature’s refusal to pass laws prohibiting children from working in coal mines — a common practice because children were able to reach small areas in the mines. The 1891 constitution required railroad property to be taxed the same as individual property and allowed the state more authority to regulate railroads and other corporations.

A final major issue driving Kentucky’s new constitution was the method of voting. People had been voting by voice, making it so easy for politicians to buy votes that vote-buying became a common practice. The new constitution required all elections to be held by secret ballot and said that any person who bribed someone for a vote could not hold office.

Every version of the Kentucky Constitution contained a bill of rights, which did not change much from the beginning of statehood. The new constitution, however, placed the Bill of Rights first to emphasize the importance of individual rights.

Unsurprisingly, Kentucky’s Bill of Rights has been a source of litigation over the years, and courts have largely interpreted it to track with federal law. In some cases, though, courts have found Kentucky’s constitution to be more protective of individual freedom. In 1992’s Commonwealth v. Wasson, for example, the Kentucky Supreme Court considered whether a law that criminalized same-sex intimacy was constitutionally permissible. The court determined that such laws violated the constitution, even though the U.S. Supreme Court had failed to take similar action in 1986’s Bowers v. Hardwick. (The U.S. high court overturned Bowers in 2003.)

Other recent cases sought to argue that Kentucky’s Bill of Rights is more protective of individual liberties than its federal counterpart. For example, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade, a group of medical providers challenged Kentucky’s restrictive abortion laws. They claimed that these laws violated provisions related to privacy and self-determination in the Kentucky Constitution. A circuit court judge agreed, granting an injunction. Eventually, the Kentucky Supreme Court lifted the injunction and allowed the ban to take effect, however it did so based on standing — the idea that medical providers could not bring suit on behalf of their patients — rather than the merits of the case. The court expressly left open the door for future lawsuits, noting that “nothing in this opinion shall be construed to prevent an appropriate party from filing suit at a later date.”

Kentuckians Hold the Line on Amendments

Since it was ratified in 1891, Kentucky’s constitution has continued to be amended through legislative proposals. Each legislatively proposed amendment must receive three-fifth support in both houses of the General Assembly and then be approved by a majority of voters. It is worth noting that Kentucky, unlike other states, does not allow for citizen initiatives.

Kentucky voters have seemed somewhat skeptical of approving legislatively proposed amendments, and citizens have no mechanism for changing the constitution via a ballot initiative. Between 1891 to 2022, the General Assembly proposed 83 amendments and voters rejected nearly half. Still, many notable amendments have passed, including a provision allowing the General Assembly to hold annual legislative sessions and an amendment granting certain rights to victims of a crime. Kentucky voters have rejected a number of proposed amendments, including ones to constitutionally-restrict abortion access in 2022 and use public dollars to fund private charter schools in 2024.

Education, in particular, continues to be a discussed and debated topic in the state. Section 183 of the Kentucky Constitution states that the “General Assembly shall, by appropriate legislation, provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the state.” The Kentucky Supreme Court interpreted this provision, in 1989’s Rose v. Council for Better Education, to require the legislature to ensure that students in poorer school districts receive similar opportunities as those in higher income districts, and to guarantee that all districts have adequate funding.

More recently, this provision has been at issue in litigation to determine whether it is permissible to use public dollars to fund private charter schools. Following the defeat of a proposed amendment to expressly allow for this funding, proponents of charter schools have argued that no constitutional change is required to authorize them. This is so, they say, because charter schools fall within the “common schools” language in the existing constitution. In early 2026, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously ruled that directing state tax dollars to charter schools violated Kentucky’s constitution because the constitution mandates “state education funds are for common schools and nothing else.”

The Constitution’s Future

Today, advocates continue to put forward ideas to amend and improve Kentucky’s constitution. Kentucky remains one of just two states where people who are convicted of felonies permanently lose the right to vote, even after their sentence is completed. In 2019, the governor issued an executive order restoring voting rights for some individuals, however this executive order —which could be rescinded by a new administration — does not change the provision of the constitution that mandates disenfranchisement. In recent years, lawmakers have presented bipartisan proposals to create a process to restore individuals’ voting rights. Additionally, Kentucky’s constitution still contains language permitting slavery “as a punishment for crime,” and lawmakers have proposed an amendment to remove this language.

The Kentucky Constitution has evolved over time. Yet it continues to provide the state’s foundation and structure. As Kentucky moves into the future, the constitution — and the citizens who retain the ultimate power to shape it — will guide how it approaches and adapts to new challenges.

Cassie Chambers Armstrong is an assistant professor at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. The views in this article are her own and should not be attributed to the University of Louisville.

Suggested Citation: Cassie Chambers Armstrong, Kentucky’s Constitution: From Open Frontier to Fiercely Independent, Sᴛᴀᴛᴇ Cᴏᴜʀᴛ Rᴇᴘᴏʀᴛ (Mar. 31, 2026), https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/kentuckys-constitution-open-frontier-fiercely-independent