The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the document that defines and limits the powers of the state government and the basic rights of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like all other state constitutions, it is supreme over Virginia's laws and acts of government, though it may be superseded by the United States Constitution and U.S. federal law as per the Supremacy Clause.
The original Virginia Constitution of 1776 was enacted at the time of the Declaration of Independence by the first thirteen states of the United States of America. Virginia was an early state to adopt its own Constitution on June 29, 1776, and the document was widely influential both in the United States and abroad. In addition to frequent amendments, there have been six major subsequent revisions of the constitution (by Conventions for the constitutions of 1830, 1851, 1864, 1870, 1902, and by commission for 1971 amendments). These new constitutions have been part of, and in reaction to, periods of major regional or social upheaval in Virginia. For instance, the 1902 constitution included provisions to disenfranchise African Americans, who in 1900 made up nearly 36% of the state's population. They did not regain suffrage until after the enactment of federal civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.
Historic constitutions
1776 The drafting of the first Virginia Constitution began in early 1776, amidst the American colonies' break with Britain. George Mason and James Madison played central roles in shaping the document. Although Thomas Jefferson submitted a draft from the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, it arrived too late to be considered.John Dinan, The Virginia State Constitution, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 5–6. Madison's involvement in Virginia’s founding charter would later inform his work on the United States Constitution.John Dinan, The Virginia State Constitution, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 5–6. Jefferson later criticized the final version, arguing it lacked sufficient structural checks and failed to secure a truly balanced republican government.Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 133–136.
Adopted on June 29, 1776, the Constitution formally dissolved Virginia’s allegiance to the British crown and accused King George III of tyranny. It created a bicameral legislature—the General Assembly—and established a weak executive branch, with a governor elected annually by the legislature. The accompanying Virginia Declaration of Rights, drafted by Mason, outlined core political principles, including the inherent rights of individuals and the fundamental purpose of government. Its language deeply influenced the U.S. Declaration of Independence and later served as a model for the U.S. Bill of Rights.Bonwick, “Enlightenment and Experience,” 188.Akhil Reed Amar, “The Story Behind the Declaration of Independence’s Most Memorable Line,” Time Magazine, May 7, 2021.
While revolutionary in tone, the 1776 Constitution preserved many aspects of colonial governance. Drawing on Enlightenment philosophy—especially John Locke's theories of natural rights—the framers emphasized legislative supremacy and separation of powers, though in practice most authority remained in the General Assembly.Bonwick, “Enlightenment and Experience,” 188. Both the executive and judiciary were appointed by the legislature, creating little institutional independence. Historian Brent Tarter argues this structure "entrenched the power of the landed gentry" and ensured continued dominance by Virginia’s elite families.Tarter, Grandees of Government, 13–15. Representation was based on fixed counties rather than population, disproportionately empowering eastern slaveholding regions over growing western settlements.Tarter, Grandees of Government, 13–15.
Suffrage was limited to white male property owners, excluding most Virginians from political participation. Historian Leonard Levy notes that this restriction reflected elite fears of popular democracy and protected the political order from what they saw as “mob rule.”Leonard W. Levy, “The Law of the Commonwealth and Chief Justice Marshall’s Defense of the Union,” Michigan Law Review 68, no. 2 (1969): 372. Although the Declaration of Rights advocated religious freedom, the Anglican Church remained Virginia’s established religion, and the Constitution offered little protection to dissenters.Bonwick, “Enlightenment and Experience,” 188. It was also silent on slavery, leaving the institution legally untouched—an omission that, according to Tarter, signaled tacit approval.Tarter, Grandees of Government, 48.
Despite these limitations, the Constitution of 1776 significantly influenced other revolutionary governments. Gordon S. Wood describes it as a blueprint for state-building, particularly in its emphasis on written rights declarations and legislative dominance, although later generations would criticize the imbalance of power it created.Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 133–136. Legal scholar Stephen McCullough observes that courts have since interpreted the document as coextensive with federal constitutional protections, often neglecting the unique rights and traditions rooted in Virginia's own legal history.McCullough, “A Vanishing Virginia Constitution?” 362. He argues that “preserving the vitality of the Virginia Constitution depends on active interpretation,” and calls for greater scholarly and judicial engagement with its original meaning.McCullough, “A Vanishing Virginia Constitution?” 362. 1830 By the 1820s, Virginia was one of only two states that limited voting to landowners. In addition, because representation was by county rather than population, the residents of increasingly populous Western Virginia (the area that would become West Virginia in 1863) had grown discontented at their limited representation in the legislature. Pressure increased until a constitutional convention was convened in 1829–1830. This convention became largely a contest between eastern Virginia planters of the slaveholding elite and the less affluent yeomen farmers of Western Virginia. Issues of representation and suffrage dominated the debate. Delegates to the convention included such prominent Virginians as James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler, and John Marshall. Western leaders included Philip Doddridge and Alexander Campbell.
The convention ultimately compromised by loosening suffrage requirements. It also reduced the number of senators and delegates to the Virginia General Assembly. The resulting constitution was ratified by a popular majority, though most of the voters in the western part of the state ended up voting against it.Dabney (1971), p. 218 Thus, the underlying intrastate tensions remained, and would have to be addressed later.
1851 As of the 1840 census, the majority of the white residents of the state lived in western Virginia, but they were underrepresented in the legislature because of the continued property requirement for voting; not all held sufficient property to vote. This compounded their dissatisfaction with the apportionment scheme adopted in 1830, which was based on counties rather than population, thus giving disproportionate power to the fewer, but propertied whites who lived in the eastern part of the state and kept a grip on the legislature. As the state legislature also elected the governor and the United States senators, Western Virginians felt they had little influence on state leadership. Their attempts to win electoral reform in the Virginia legislature were defeated each time. Some began to openly discuss the abolition of slavery or secession from the state. Ultimately, the eastern planters could not continue to ignore their discontent, and a new constitutional convention was called to resolve the continuing tensions.
The most significant change adopted in the 1851 Constitution was elimination of the property requirement for voting, resulting in extension of the suffrage to all white males of voting age. The 1851 Constitution established popular election for the governor, the newly created office of lieutenant governor, and all Virginia judges, rather than the election of the top two state officers by the legislature, or political appointment for judges. Because of these changes, the 1851 Virginia Constitution became known as the "Reform Constitution".
1864 When in 1861, the Virginia legislature voted for secession in the events leading up to the American Civil War, all of the western and several of the northern counties dissented. They set up a separate government with Francis H. Pierpont as governor. During the Civil War, this separate or "restored" government approved the creation of West Virginia as a separate state (which was admitted to the Union in 1863) and in 1864 it approved a new Constitution.Salmon (1994), pp.45–47. The constitution was the product of a divided state and government; it was the first since the original 1776 Constitution to be adopted by the legislature without a popular vote.
The 1864 Constitution abolished slavery in Virginia, disenfranchised men who had served in the Confederate government, recognized the creation of the State of West Virginia, and adjusted the number and terms of office of the members of the Virginia Assembly.
The foreword to the current Virginia Constitution does not include the 1864 Constitution in its list of previous constitutions. It notes that the 1864 Constitution was drafted under wartime conditions and was of uncertain legal status.
1870 After the end of the Civil War, Virginia came briefly under military rule during Reconstruction, with the district commanded by John M. Schofield. Pursuant to federal Reconstruction legislation, Schofield called for a new constitutional convention to meet in Richmond from December 1867 to April 1868. In protest of freedmen's suffrage, many of Virginia's conservative whites refused to participate in voting for delegates. As a result, Republicans led by Judge John Curtiss Underwood dominated the convention. Opponents called the result the "Underwood Constitution"Salmon (1994), p. 52. or the "Negro Constitution", as it gave freedmen suffrage.
Significant provisions included expanding the suffrage to all male citizens over the age of 21, which included freedmen; establishing a state public school system for the first time, with mandatory funding and attendance; and providing for judges to be elected by the General Assembly rather than by popular vote. Controversy over clauses that continued the temporary disenfranchisement of former Confederate government members delayed the adoption of the Constitution. An eventual compromise provided for separate voting disenfranchisement clauses and the rest of the Constitution; the former failed to win approval. The remainder of the Underwood Constitution was ratified by a popular vote of 210,585 to 9,136 and went into effect in 1870.
1902 In the late nineteenth century, white Democrats regained power in state legislatures across the South. They passed Jim Crow laws establishing racial segregation in public facilities and restricting the lives of blacks. Beginning with Mississippi in 1890, legislatures began to ratify new constitutions, amendments or electoral laws that disenfranchised African American voters, devising means such as poll taxes, literacy tests and residential requirements that passed Supreme Court review but worked against poor blacks and many poor whites. By the turn of the 20th century, six Southern states had essentially eliminated the black vote, and pressure mounted among whites in Virginia to do the same, ostensibly as a way to stop electoral fraud and corruption.