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1966 Utah L. Rev. 326 (1966)
Notes on a Bill of Rights in a State Constitution

handle is hein.journals/utahlr1966 and id is 346 raw text is: Notes on a Bill of Rights in a State Constitution By Lester J. Mazor* Frequent recurrence to fundamental principles is essential to the security of individual rights and the perpetuity of free government. UTAH CONSTuTON art. I, § 27. If the words constitution and bill of rights are not synonyms in the American political thesaurus, they are at least so closely related in meaning that the definition of one is not complete without reference to the other. The authority distributed in the constitution takes form and character from the limitations placed upon it. Perhaps officialdom thinks of the constitution primarily as a source of power, but in the mind of the public its function as a restraint on power's exercise is paramount. Only in the most technical sense does the Federal Bill of Rights consist of amendments to the original document. They are complementary rather than supplementary, a condition subsequent rather than a series of alterations, changes, or corrections. Thus, there is no apparent awkwardness in their being juxtaposed in an appendix instead of being inserted among the earlier articles, something that cannot be said for most of the later amendments. Their subject matter is basic to the frame of government because nothing is more at the heart of the notion of constitutionalism than liberty against government - the bill of rights. The declaration of rights in a typical American state constitution is an integral part of the document, formally as well as substantively. Often its priority is established by its placement in the first article, and frequently its status is emphasized by the inclusion of statements of political theory, describ- ing the relationship of God, man and state in language reminiscent of the Declaration of Independence.' Insofar as they delineate the organization of government, state constitutions are the direct descendants of the colonial charters. The genealogy of their bills of rights is traceable more clearly to an earlier era -through the Virginia Declaration of Rights to the English Bill of Rights, the Petition of Right and, ultimately, to that most sacred of our unread scriptures, the Magna Carta.2 The distinctly American con- tribution to this noble line is the concept of embodying these guarantees in a single document, supreme over all other sources of law, binding on the officials of every branch and level of government and enforceable by judicial process. Although many countries have copied and some have aped our con- stitutions, none has accepted our constitutionalism in this fullest sense. For this reason the obvious deserves emphasis: These fundamentals are taken for granted in the political and legal theory of every American state. * Associate Professor of Law, University of Utah. 'E.g., ALASKA CONST. art. I, § 1; ILL. CONST. art. II, § 1. 2'POUND, THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEES Ov LmERTY (1957).

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