Article 20, Arizona Constitution

The following ordinance shall be irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of this state:

Perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured to every inhabitant of this state, and no inhabitant of this state shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship, or lack of the same.^[1]

Polygamous or plural marriages, or polygamous co-habitation, are forever prohibited within this state.^[2]

The introduction of intoxicating liquors for resale purposes into Indian country is prohibited within this state until July 1, 1957.^[3]

The people inhabiting this state do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated and ungranted public lands lying within the boundaries thereof and to all lands lying within said boundaries owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes, the right or title to which shall have been acquired through or from the United States or any prior sovereignty, and that, until the title of such Indian or Indian tribes shall have been extinguished, the same shall be, and remain, subject to the disposition and under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United States.^[4]

The lands and other property belonging to citizens of the United States residing without this state shall never be taxed at a higher rate than the lands and other property situated in this state belonging to residents thereof, and no taxes shall be imposed by this state on any lands or other property within an Indian reservation owned or held by any Indian; but nothing herein shall preclude the state from taxing as other lands and other property are taxed, any lands and other property outside of an Indian reservation owned or held by any Indian, save and except such lands as have been granted or acquired as aforesaid, or as may be granted or confirmed to any Indian or Indians under any act of Congress.^[5]

The debts and liabilities of the territory of Arizona, and the debts of the counties thereof, valid and subsisting at the time of the passage of the enabling act approved June 20, 1910, are hereby assumed and shall be paid by the state of Arizona, and the state of Arizona shall, as to all such debts and liabilities, be subrogated to all the rights, including rights of indemnity and reimbursement, existing in favor of said territory or of any of the several counties thereof, at the time of the passage of the said enabling act; Provided that nothing in this ordinance shall be construed as validating or in any manner legalizing any territory, county, municipal, or other bonds, obligations, or evidences of indebtedness of said territory or the counties or municipalities thereof which now are or may be invalid or illegal at the time the said state of Arizona is admitted as a state, and the legislature or the people of the state of Arizona shall never pass any law in any manner validating or legalizing the same.^[6]

Provisions shall be made by law for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools which shall be open to all the children of the state and be free from sectarian control, and said schools shall always be conducted in English. The state shall never enact any law restricting or abridging the right of suffrage on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.^[7]

The ability to read, write, speak, and understand the English language sufficiently well to conduct the duties of the office without the aid of an interpreter, shall be a necessary qualification for all state officers and members of the state legislature.^[8]

The capital of the state of Arizona, until changed by the electors voting at an election provided for by the legislature for that purpose shall be at the city of Phoenix, but no such election shall be called or provided for prior to the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and twenty-five.^[9]

Tenth

Eleventh

The state of Arizona and its people hereby consent to all and singular the provisions of the enabling act approved June 20, 1910, concerning the lands thereby granted or confirmed to the state, the terms and conditions upon which said grants and confirmations are made, and the means and manner of enforcing such terms and conditions, all in every respect and particular as in the aforesaid enabling act provided.^[10]

This ordinance is hereby made a part of the Constitution of the state of Arizona, and no future constitutional amendment shall be made which in any manner changes or abrogates this ordinance in whole or in part without the consent of Congress.^[11]