Constitution of Florida
Florida's first constitution as a U.S. territory was written and implemented in 1838. On March 3, 1845, Florida was granted admission into the Union as the 27th state. The current Constitution of Florida was ratified on November 5, 1968, and has been modified by initiative and referendum several times since.
Constitution of Florida
The political context of this new Constitution was that it was a necessary step toward fair apportionment of legislative districts, required by the US Supreme Court in various decisions in the 1960s. Many states, including Florida. had allotted a fixed number of senators per county, regardless of population, since the republic began. This violated the new federal court decisions. The regular political process had failed to remedy this. The malapportionment, until the new Constitution, had strongly favored rural, North Florida legislators, including the Pork Chop Gang, over legislators from more populous, urban districts. In 1960, "12.3% of the population could elect a majority in the state senate and 14.7% could do the same in the lower house."