Constitutional Convention began with enabling act

Law and Public Issues

By Ann M. Lousin

Ann M. Lousin has been a professor at The John Marshall Law School since 1975. Before then, she was a research assistant at the 1969-1970 Illinois constitutional convention and parliamentarian of the Illinois House of Representatives. Her treatise “The Illinois State Constitution: A Reference Guide” was published in December 2009. She can be contacted at 7lousin@jmls.edu.

Posted September 20, 2019 3:39 PM

In 2019 and 2020, Illinois will be observing the semicentennial of the sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention and of its product, the 1970 Illinois Constitution. This is the first of three columns describing how the process of holding the convention and electing members of the convention came about.When Illinoisans voted to hold a constitutional convention on Nov. 5, 1968, the shape of the convention was not a foregone conclusion. The 1870 Constitution set forth the basic requirements for members of the convention: Two …

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