Oklahoma Constitution

Article One establishes how the state of Oklahoma is to relate to the United States federal government, stating that the US Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land. By this article, religious freedom is established, polygamy is forbidden, the debts of Oklahoma Territory are acquired by the State of Oklahoma, public school are established to be taught only in English, and that suffrage shall never be revoked due to “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Article Two enumerates the rights of all citizens of the State of Oklahoma. These include that all political power derives from the people, the inherent rights “to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry,” the right to peaceful assembly, a ban on the interference with suffrage, the definition of treason, the right to trial by jury, that marriage in the State of Oklahoma is defined as being between a man and a woman, and many others.

Article Three deals with suffrage in the State of Oklahoma. All peoples of the age of 18 are qualified electors in the state and a State Elector Board is established charged with the supervision of such elections as the Legislature shall direct. No elector in Oklahoma may vote in any election unless previously registered to do so with the state, and all elections must be “free and equal,” as no “power, civil or military, shall ever interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage,” and “electors shall be privileged from arrest during their attendance on elections and while going to and from the same” except in cases of treason against the state.

Article Four established the Government of Oklahoma under the doctrine of separation of powers and reads:

The powers of the government of the State of Oklahoma shall be divided into three separate departments: The Legislative, Executive, and Judicial; and except as provided in this Constitution, the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial departments of government shall be separate and distinct, and neither shall exercise the powers properly belonging to either of the others.

Article Five establishes the legislative branch of government, Oklahoma Legislature, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Article establishes the manner of election and qualifications of members of each House. In addition, it provides for free debate in congress and limits self-serving behavior of congressmen, outlines legislative procedure and indicates the powers of the legislative branch.

Article Six describes the governorship (the executive branch): procedures for the selection of the governor, qualifications for office, the oath to be affirmed and the powers and duties of the office. It also provides for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma, and specifies that the Lieutenant Governor succeeds to the governorship if the Governor is incapacitated, dies, or resigns. Other executive offices and departments created in the article are the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Auditor and Inspector, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Insurance Commissioner, the Commissioner of Labor, the Department of Mines, the Board of Agriculture, and the Commissioners of the Land Office.

Article Seven describes the court system (the judicial branch), including the Supreme Court. The article requires that there be one court called the Supreme Court; the Legislature, at its discretion, can create lower courts, whose judgments and orders are reviewable by the Supreme Court. However the Article does create a few lower courts or provides for how such lower courts shall be organized. Article Seven also creates the Oklahoma Court on the Judiciary (charged with reviewing Justices and Judges), designates how Justices and Judges are selected, and how and under what circumstances Justices and Judges are removed from office,

Article Eight states that all state elected offices, including Supreme Court Justices, are subject to impeachment for wilful neglect of duty, corruption in office, habitual drunkenness, incompetency, or any offense involving moral turpitude committed while in office. The Oklahoma House of Representatives must bring the charges against the individual with the Oklahoma Senate serving as the Court on Impeachment, with the Chief Justice of Oklahoma serving as the court's judge. If charged with impeachment and found guilty, the official’s term is immediately suspended.

• Article Nine - Corporations
• Article Ten - Taxes and Revenue in General
• Article Eleven - State and School Lands
• Article Twelve - Homestead and Exemptions
  • Article Twelve A - Homestead Exemption From Taxation
• Article Thirteen - Education
  • Article Thirteen A - Oklahoma State System of Higher Education
  • Article Thirteen B - Board of Regents of Oklahoma Colleges
• Article Fourteen - Banks and Banking
• Article Fifteen - Oath of Office
• Article Sixteen - Public Roads
• Article Seventeen - Counties
• Article Eighteen - Municipal Corporations
• Article Nineteen - Insurance
• Article Twenty - Manufacture and Commerce
• Article Twenty-one - Public Institutions
• Article Twenty-two - Alien and Corporate Ownership of Lands
• Article Twenty-three - Miscellaneous
• Article Twenty-four - Constitutional Amendments
  • The Oklahoma Constitution permits three methods of amendment: 1) amendments by the Oklahoma Legislature (requires majority vote of both houses and approval by majority of the voters at next general election; the Legislature can by 2/3 vote place the amendment on a special election), 2) constitutional convention (a call for such requires majority voter approval before the convention is held, and any amendments or new constitution requires majority voter approval, but such a call must be made at least once every 20 years), or 3) via an initiative petition.
• Article Twenty-five - Social Security
• Article Twenty-six - Department of Wildlife Conservation
• Article Twenty-seven - Oklahoma Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (repealed)
• Article Twenty-eight - Alcoholic Beverage Laws And Enforcement
• Article Twenty-nine - Ethics Commission

The final section of the Oklahoma Constitution deals with laws and other ordinances in place in the Territory of Oklahoma before its admission to the Union in 1907.