Formally, Kansas still operates under a constitution dating from 1959. However, its present day basic law differs importantly from the original text. In The Kansas State Constitution, Francis H. Heller offers an unprecedented explanation of Kansas's experience with "incremental revision." In The Kansas State Constitution, Francis H. Heller carefully traces the history and development of the Kansas state constitution. Heller includes the constitutional text in its entirety and offers accompanying descriptions of specific constitutional provisions. These descriptions provide readers with important information about the origins each provision, as well as ways in which the courts and other governmental bodies have interpreted them. A bibliographical essay describing the most important sources of the constitutional history and constitutional law of Kansas, making this an indispensable for students, scholars, and practitioners of Kansas's constitution. Previously published by Greenwood, this title has been brought back in to circulation by Oxford University Press with new verve. Re-printed with standardization of content organization in order to facilitate research across the series, this title, as with all titles in the series, is set to join the dynamic revision cycle of The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States. The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the state's constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research. Under the expert editorship of Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents.

Francis H. Heller is the Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Law and Political Science at the University of Kansas.

Series Foreword by G. Alan Tarr Foreword by Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum The Constitutional History of Kansas First Efforts to Write a Constitution The Wyandotte Constitution Sources of the Wyandotte Constitution Last Steps on the Road to Statehood Adapting the Constitution The Political Climate of the New State Correcting Errors: The First Two Amendments Suffrage and Elections The Executive Branch The Legislative Branch The Judicial Branch Local Government Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Prohibition Taxation Corporations Highways and Public Works Welfare Labor Summary Observations Wholesale Revision by the Incremental Method Post-1974 Amendments The Kansas Constitution and Commentary Articles Executive Legislative Judiciary Elections Suffrage E ducation Public Institutions and Welfare Militia County and Township Organization Apportionment of the Legislature Finance and Taxation Corporations Banks Constitutional Amendment and Revision Miscellaneous Index