Constitution of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

1986

Rhode Island's current constitution was ratified by voters in November 1986, replacing a document that dated to 1843. The 1843 constitution had itself been a landmark moment: it replaced the colonial charter of 1663, which Rhode Island had continued using as its governing document for over two centuries after independence — longer than any other state. The 1986 revision modernized the structure of state government, strengthened civil rights protections, and reorganized language that had grown unwieldy through more than a century of piecemeal amendment. Rhode Island, founded by Roger Williams as a refuge for religious dissenters, has always prized individual liberty, and that tradition is visible throughout the constitution's declaration of rights.