Every U.S. state has a constitution that operates under the umbrella of the U.S. Constitution. These state constitutions, though legally subordinate to the U.S. Constitution, have their own unique provisions. This principle means state constitutions can't validate activities that violate the U.S. Constitution such as permitting a state religion.
Surprisingly, many state constitutions offer civil rights protections even beyond those found in the U.S. Constitution. They exhibit this by providing guarantees not explicitly outlined in the federal charter. For instance, the Vermont Constitution abolished slavery even before the U.S. Constitution. In this way, state constitutions serve not only to reinforce federal law but also can augment civil rights protections.
Below is a list of links to online versions of state constitutions. Whenever possible, the sites are hosted by the states themselves. HTML versions were preferred over PDF versions, but were not always available. Some states do not supply an easily read or linked-to page. In these instances, trusted third-party sites were used. From time to time, sites change the format of their web sites, rendering these links unusable — if you find such a bad link, please let the Webmaster know.
Also see the Constitution.org site.
The following U.S. territories also have constitutions:
This site has a survey of mentions of God in the state constitutions.
Other resources can be found on the Resources Page.
