Constitution of the State of Ohio

1851

Ohio's current constitution was adopted in 1851, replacing the state's original 1802 constitution. The 1851 revision was driven by reformers who sought to limit the power of the legislature, which had accumulated significant debt through improvident internal improvement projects, and to establish a more balanced distribution of authority across the three branches of government. Ohio was the first state carved from the Northwest Territory, and its constitutional history reflects the region's early role as a laboratory for democratic governance in the American Midwest. The 1851 constitution remains the foundational law of Ohio today, amended extensively but never replaced, and it incorporates robust provisions for citizen lawmaking through the initiative process added in the early twentieth century.