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Florida State Constitution

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The Florida Constitution is thoroughly investigated and cited.

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Solution Summary

The solution looks at the Florida State Constitution - the way that it is structured/organized, the allocation of power and responsibility between the legislative, judicial and executive powers; the differentiation between local and state power as well as taxation and electoral system. References are listed for further exploration of the topic. A word-version is also attached.

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Dear Student,
Hi and thank you for using Brainmass. The solution below should get you started. If you have questions about it, just let me know via the feedback section. The solution below 'takes' directly from the Constitution so citation is not necessary via the (Author, year) route - this is explicitly stated within the body. But, if your professor expects you to do this, just write (Florida Constitution, 1968) within the "cited text" section. You can also use the listed references for further exploration of the topic. Good luck!

Sincerely,
OTA 105878/Xenia Jones
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The Florida Constitution

The constitution of Florida is the basic legal document that established the laws of the state. The current constitution has been ratified November 5, 1968; prior to this, there had been 5 others. The first one was ratified December 3, 1838. It was a requirement for the former territory to become a state. The other 4 were ratified in the following dates: December 22, 1861 (known as the ordinance of Secession); November 7, 1865; February 18, 1868 (adapted May 1868); August 3, 1885 (ratified November 1885). It took nigh on 83 years for the current constitution to replace the previous one. So why many amendments and changes? There are varied reasons. A state's constitution must always be relevant to the demands and needs of its people and when problems are encountered with it, the legislators work to amend it so that it 'answers the need' of the state. The power to amend and change the tenets of the constitution is part and parcel of the constitution's convention itself. The constitution in place is open to changes and amendments so that it copes with the changing times. The 1861 emendations were due to the state's reaction of the Civil War. It was all about the question of secession from the Union and the convention was called for the state to have the power to withdraw at any time given the advent of war. The 1865 amendment was done so that the state, which declared independence in 1861, can re-enter the union once again. It was never put into effect since Congress disapproved of it and put the state under military control instead for the purposes of reconstruction. It wasn't until 1868 that a new constitution was rewritten and approved by the federal union that Florida got to re-enter the Union as a state of equal power and parity to other members of the union. This constitution was in place until 1885 when the state believed that a few changes was necessary including legitimized poll taxes as prerequisites for voting. This move greatly reduced the number of voters and it is said to be discriminative to Blacks as it suppressed registration and voter-participation. The 1968 Constitution revised this and introduced a new administrational hierarchy. The new Article VI changed the manner of election and suffrage, the new Article VIII redefined law local government and Article V from 1885 was amended. Additionally, while much of the current state's constitution is all from 1968, in 1998, Article IV was ...

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