Sample Solution

The Constitution of Arizona will seem both familiar and alien to those who have only read the Constitution of the United States. The state text contains many similar features: two legislative chambers, separation of powers, and a Bill of Rights — or, to be more precise, a Declaration of Rights. The Arizona Constitution is also very different. It uses significantly different language, contains more expansive civil liberties, and builds several unique institutions, specific to Arizona’s special political community. It is also hard not to see that the Arizona Constitution is far, far longer than the U.S. Constitution. This is because, as the introductory essay in our “Essential” Constitution explains in more detail, the U.S. Constitution, while limiting the federal government to those powers listed in its text, preserves the presumption of power for state authority. As such, state constitutions are much longer because citizens must restrict what a state government can and cannot do. Arizona’s charter has also been amended far more frequently than the federal Constitution because the Framers of the state Constitution created a document that would be especially responsive to the wishes of the local citizenry rather than the consensus required to change the federal document.