Amend with caution: why constitutional changes are rarely necessary

By: Candi Tucker

Outlets: North Carolina Newsline

Published: June 9, 2026

Words: 872

Last Updated: 1 month, 2 weeks ago

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North Carolina has had three constitutions.

The first was written when our state joined a brand-new nation. The second emerged after the Civil War, when North Carolina finally prohibited slavery and secession. The third, and current, Constitution was adopted in 1971, not because the entire document needed reinventing, but because decades of amendments had cluttered the 1868 Constitution.

History is repeating itself.

Constitutional amendments are supposed to be rare. They are supposed to matter. They …

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