Florida's Constitutions, 1838 to Today

Florida has had state constitutions dated 1838, 1865, 1868, 1885 and the current 1968 revision, plus wartime changes made by the 1861 secession convention, according to the State Archives and the Florida Senate's constitution text (Florida Memory, Florida Constitutions; Florida Constitution, as revised in 1968).

The archive's collection also holds the 1812 constitution of the short lived Republic of East Florida, written after a group calling itself the Patriot Army occupied Fernandina on Amelia Island in March 1812; the archive calls that republic short lived and ultimately unsuccessful (Florida Memory). Florida Memory notes that many provisions of the current constitution date back to the 19th century (Florida Memory).

Florida's first state constitution was drafted by 56 delegates meeting in the coastal town of St. Joseph in late 1838 and early 1839, but Congress did not admit Florida until 1845 (Florida Memory, Constitution of 1838).

The State Archives says the delegates drew on neighboring states' constitutions, especially Alabama's, and that the people of Florida ratified the document only barely (Florida Memory). The Department of State dates Florida's admission as the 27th state to March 3, 1845, after the United States acquired Florida from Spain as a territory in 1821 (Florida Department of State, Quick Facts). Florida Memory's Cabinet guide lists the 1838 charter's Cabinet offices, effective 1845, as a Secretary of State, Comptroller and Treasurer (Florida Memory, Cabinet guide).

Florida changed its constitution three times between 1861 and 1868: an 1861 secession convention amended it, an 1865 convention replaced it, and an 1868 Reconstruction convention replaced it again (Florida Memory, Florida Constitutions).

After the November 1860 presidential election, the Florida Legislature called a Convention of the People; delegates elected in December met in Tallahassee in January 1861, voted 62 to 7 to leave the Union, making Florida the third state to secede, and changed officials' terms and removed references to the United States from the constitution (Florida Memory, Ordinance of Secession). After Union forces occupied Florida in May 1865, President Andrew Johnson named Judge William Marvin of Key West provisional governor and had him call a convention, which annulled the Ordinance of Secession and framed a constitution that recognized the end of slavery (Florida Memory, Constitution of 1865).

That document was short lived. Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts over Johnson's veto, and under them all eligible men over 21, regardless of race, were registered to vote and chose delegates; Florida's convention met in January 1868, voters ratified the constitution on May 4, 1868, and Congress declared Florida back in the Union on July 25, 1868 (Florida Memory, Constitution of 1868).

The 1885 constitution, drafted by a convention in Tallahassee in June 1885 and ratified in November 1886, made many appointed offices elective and wrote racial segregation into Florida's basic law (Florida Memory, Constitution of 1885).

The State Archives describes the 1868 document as shaped by the dominance of the Republican Party and the first enfranchisement of African Americans, and says conservative Democrats controlled state politics by the early 1880s and wanted to reverse some of its provisions (Florida Memory). Under the 1885 text, segregation of public schools was made mandatory, poll taxes were legalized and intermarriage between white and African American residents was prohibited (Florida Memory).

The 1885 charter's executive branch had six elected Cabinet officers, the Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Commissioner of Agriculture, Attorney General and Superintendent of Public Instruction (Florida Memory, Cabinet guide). When the 1968 revision took over, its schedule superseded Articles I through IV, VII and IX through XX of the 1885 constitution, as amended, except sections expressly retained (Florida Constitution, Article XII, section 1).

The current constitution came from three joint resolutions passed in a legislative special session from June 24 to July 3, 1968, and ratified by voters on November 5, 1968 (Florida Senate, Constitution of the State of Florida as revised in 1968).

The Senate's editorial note explains the parts: House Joint Resolution 1-2X supplied the whole revised constitution except Articles V, VI and VIII; Senate Joint Resolution 4-2X proposed Article VI on suffrage and elections; Senate Joint Resolution 5-2X proposed a new Article VIII on local government; and Article V on the judiciary was carried forward from the 1885 constitution as amended (Florida Constitution, editorial note). Sections composing the 1968 revision have no history notes, and later changes are shown by notes added to the affected sections (Florida Constitution, editorial note).

The two official accounts emphasize different stages. Florida Memory says the current constitution was framed by a constitutional revision commission and approved in 1968 (Florida Memory), while the Senate note describes it as proposed by the Legislature's three joint resolutions (Florida Senate note). Neither page addresses the other's account.

Article XI's own section list sets out five ways to propose a change to the Florida Constitution, and unless the constitution provides otherwise a change needs at least 60 percent of the votes cast on it (Florida Constitution, Article XI).

The routes are a legislative joint resolution, a constitution revision commission, a citizen initiative, a constitutional convention and a taxation and budget reform commission (Article XI, sections 1 to 6).

The revision commission has 37 members, including the attorney general, 15 chosen by the governor, nine each by the House speaker and Senate president and three by the chief justice; it was set for the 2017 session and each twentieth year after (Article XI, section 2). The taxation and budget reform commission began in 2007 and recurs each twentieth year (Article XI, section 6). An initiative petition needs signatures equal to 8 percent of the votes cast in the last presidential election, statewide and in half of the congressional districts, while a petition to call a convention needs 15 percent; separately, section 7 requires two thirds of the voters for an amendment that imposes a new state tax or fee on or after November 8, 1994 (Article XI, sections 3, 4 and 7). Approved changes take effect on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January after the election unless the measure sets another date (Article XI, section 5(e)).

The Division of Elections, in its own summary, names four proposal routes, leaving out the convention, and repeats the 60 percent rule; it adds that an initiative sponsor must be a registered political committee and may sponsor only one statewide initiative per election cycle (Division of Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Initiatives). Recent history notes show the process in use: the 2024 ballot added Article I, section 28 on preserving fishing and hunting, and an annual inflation adjustment to homestead exemptions that took effect January 1, 2025 (Article I, section 28; Article XII, section 42).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the 1968 editorial note and Articles I, XI and XII on the Florida Senate site, two State Archives Florida Memory pages and two Florida Department of State pages, all reopened that day.