hi again and welcome to the Wyman Constitution we're going to talk about the founding of the Constitution here in Wyoming and some of the ways that it's similar and different from the US Constitution um the first page you can see some images of Wyoming of course you've got my favorite fishing spot up on miror lake in the snowy mountains just 40 minutes away from us on the upper left you have the governor at um a parade I believe that's Jubilee days it may be frontier days I'm not entirely sure and then on the bottom uh bottom right you've got the Simpson Brothers uh Alan Pete Simpson who are very notable uh figures in Wyoming politics so let's go ahead and start talking about the Wyoming Constitution first of all something you don't need to know we'll talk about when we uh talk about civil rights civil liberties but article one of the Wyoming Constitution has a statement of Rights like the US Constitution the Wyoming Constitution is structured according to uh articles and instead of article one being powers to Congress as the US Constitution uh provides the article one in the Wyoming Constitution was a statement of Rights so about the structure and content of the Wyman Constitution the main point is that it is very similar to the US Constitution in fact a lot of um what this lecture is going to be about is simply pointing out the few areas in which a Wyoming Constitution is unique understanding that in other ways that the Wyoming government is structured by the Constitution very similarly to the the national government so it's also similar by the way to other states how is it similar well there's a separation of powers we have a bamal legislature we have an executive branch we have a judicial branch we have a constitution that enumerates powers to all of these branches and we have the same system of checks and balances as a US Constitution so there's not a whole lot in terms of discussing the Wyoming Constitution the that to talk about that's unique in that regard so we're not going to spend a lot of time on it just know that in most ways it's very similar to the US Constitution one of the more interesting aspects of the Wyman Constitution is that it represents a patchwork of borrowed uh ideas there are in fact very few original ideas that are in the Wyoming Constitution we just talked about the separation of powers we just talked about bicameralism all of those uh structural aspects and institutional aspects well the founding fathers of the Wyoming con ution looked around they said well seems to be working in other states and at the federal level we should do it here so the main point is that they simply borrowed from the United States Constitution and from other state constitutions but the question becomes which ideas did they borrow this was not just some Frankenstein's monster they actually selectively borrowed and this is one of the more important as uh aspects or things to understand about the Wyman Constitution which is that the rights and the powers embedded in the Wyoming Constitution reflect Wyoming culture Wyoming has a Libertarian and egalitarian culture that dates back to the earliest days libertarianism by the way is political philosophy or ideology that tends to place very heavy emphasis on individual rights uh Wyoming has a culture of you know rugged individualism you know you've heard the term Cowboy Up that reflects that culture and so a lot of what the ideas that the founding fathers of Wyoming uh borrowed were reflective of this and egalitarianism just simply means uh an emphasis on equality not hierarchy or not hierarchical uh culture and so we're going to talk about that uh towards the end but just to back up a second again understanding that they borrowed other uh borrowed ideas from the US Constitution other states also understand that they did it selectively they borrowed the ideas that best reflected the Wyoming culture so about the Constitution itself It Was Written in September 1889 there were 49 delegates in Cheyenne they uh met in Cheyenne to draft the Wyoming Constitution a couple of them were ranchers half of them had college degrees and about 37% were lawyers so it was a pretty diverse group importantly they were not politicians though they had jobs they had careers and one of the reasons that they borrowed the ideas was so that they could get back to their families uh and their jobs they did not want to spend a lot of time Reinventing the will so they borrowed the ideas from other states in the US Constitution that they thought reflected Wyoming culture they put it together in 25 days which is you know pretty quickly and then they went home to their family and of course we're talking about Cheyenne so I have to make a George Straight reference here we're going to get to the institutions later the legislature the executive and the Judiciary but the other major difference between the US and the Wyoming Constitution has to do with the the notion of equality you'll notice that the book we use for Wyoming politics is called the equality State and this is why the constitution of Wyoming was one of the first to actually make equality a fundamental individual right I'm going to show you some texts from the Wyoming Constitution you don't need to write it down or memorize it nothing like that I just want you to sort of get a sense of how much emphasis the founding fathers placed on this notion of equality so Article 1 Section 2 says equality for all in their inherent right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness all members of the human race are equal Article 1 Section 3 says since equality in the enjoyment of natural and civil rights is only made sure through political equality the laws of the state affecting the political rights and privileges of its citizens shall be without distinction of race color sex or any circumstance or condition whatsoever other than individual incompetency or unorth duly ascertained by a court of competent jurisdiction think about how unequivocal that statement is any circumstance or condition whatsoever this was again written um in the late 1800s this was just a few decades after the end of the Civil War and women did not still uh women at the time did not have full equality and uh racial minorities did not have full equality either and so for the wiing Constitution to be this absolute in the statement of political rights is fairly remarkable so one more part from the uh excerpt from the Wyoming Constitution Article 6 section 1 male and female citizens uh to enjoy equal rights the rights of citizens of the state of Wyoming to vote and hold office shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex both male and female citizens of this state shall equally enjoy all civil political and religious rights and privileges and this is what marks Wyoming as uh very unique in the con constiution it we were the first state to provide equal rights for women as an individual right that meant that women could vote and hold off as something they could not do in I believe every other state but certainly most other states in the uh Union at that time women were just not allowed to do it which makes Wyoming for the era a very radical document the founding fathers of Wyoming while they borrowed a lot for uh regarding the institutions and the structures from other states and the US Constitution and this was one that they actually put in by themselves because they did not have anything else like it to borrow from so you know again I think one of the things for me at least that is most impressive about it is just how unequivocal the language is how radical the idea of complete equality for men and women and equality for all citizens regardless of race or um other other things I think for the time that was that was very very Progressive very radical so and I mean Progressive in the colloquial sense not in the political ideological sense so that's the Wyoming Constitution will end with the famous statue that's uh in front of the capital building in Cheyenne we're going to come back to aspects of it later in the semester as we talk about other aspects of federal government we're going to come back and compare it to Wyoming to find out how Wyoming is different and similar with the federal government