Delaware Gender-Neutral and Grammatical Corrections Constitutional Language Amendment (2025)
| Delaware Gender-Neutral and Grammatical Corrections Constitutional Language Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Ratification date March 25, 2025 | |
| Topic Constitutional language | |
| Sponsors State Reps. Melissa Minor-Brown (D-17) and Valerie Longhurst (D-15) |
The Delaware Gender-Neutral and Grammatical Corrections Constitutional Language Amendment was approved by the Delaware General Assembly and was added to the Delaware Constitution on March 25, 2025.
The amendment made stylistic and grammatical edits to the constitution; it also removed gendered language and replaced it with gender-neutral language.
Overview
What did this constitutional amendment do?
- See also: Text of measure
The constitutional amendment made grammatical and stylistic changes to the Delaware Constitution. Most of the changes included removing duplicate titles from sections in the constitution, exchanging written numbers with numerals (i.e. two for 2), and capitalizing terms. Additionally, the amendment removed gendered terms and pronouns from the constitution and replaced them with gender-neutral terms (i.e. his or her for the person's).[1]
Who supported this constitutional amendment?
State Reps. Melissa Minor-Brown (D-17) and Valerie Longhurst (D-15) introduced versions of the constitutional amendment to the Delaware General Assembly for their consideration. The legislature unanimously approved the constitutional amendment in both 2024 and 2025.
Text of measure
Amendment synopsis
The text of House Bill 10, the second version of the amendment to be approved by the state legislature, included a synopsis of the measure.
Note: Use your mouse to scroll over the text below to view the ballot language.
First, this Act makes the language of the Delaware Constitution gender silent. Senate Bill No. 97 (152nd General Assembly), enacted as Chapter 42 of Volume 84 of the Laws of Delaware, directed the Code Revisors to use gender silent techniques to ensure masculine or feminine pronouns are not used in Delaware Code unless the usage requires otherwise. Thus, instead of drafting a law to say, “The Governor may appoint an individual if he or she deems him or her qualified”, following gender silent techniques the law would say, “The Governor may appoint an individual if the Governor deems the individual qualified.” This technique has the added benefit of providing clarity as many times use of multiple masculine or feminine pronouns can result in confusion as to which noun the pronouns refer. This Act would apply this same drafting technique to the Delaware Constitution. This action is consistent with the General Assembly’s amendment of the Constitution in 1999 following the adoption of a law directing the Code Revisors to gender neutralize or otherwise ensure that a solely masculine or feminine designation never occurs unless it could only apply to one gender.
Second, this Act makes additional technical corrections identified by the General Assembly's Division of Legislative Services. Specifically, these technical corrections include the following:
- (1) Officially authorizing the headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution as the headings are contained in the Constitution of the State of Delaware, Adopted 1897, As Amended”, as published by the Delaware Code Revisors in the Delaware Code. The headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution are not original to the Constitution adopted in 1897. These headings were added during the 1953 revision to the Delaware Code. Since then, publication of the Constitution has included headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution in the version of the Delaware Constitution that has been published in the Delaware Code. Almost immediately after the 1953 revision to the Delaware Code, the General Assembly began enacting new constitutional amendments with headings and amending existing Sections of the Delaware Constitution using the headings provided or making amendments to the headings provided. However, these headings were not officially authorized by the General Assembly. Consistent with § 306 of Title 1 of the Delaware Code, the intent of authorizing all headings in the Delaware Constitution is for the purpose of convenient reference, not as an interpretive tool for the courts.
- (2) Based on the adoption of headings for each Section of the Delaware Constitution, removing existing Section numbers and relying instead on the adopted headings.
- (3) Consistently using the series (Oxford) comma.
- (4) Implementing a consistent hierarchy scheme and naming, consistent with the Delaware Code.
- (5) Implementing a consistent scheme for naming, capitalization, and citing of references to provisions of the Delaware Constitution.
- (6) Implementing a consistent scheme for numbers used for time, dates, and money by using the numerical form of the number only.
- (7) Capitalizing consistent with standard capitalization rules.
- (8) Replacing references to “this amended Article IV of this Constitution” with “this Article”.
- (9) Replacing references to “this amended Article IV of this Constitution becomes effective” with “May 14, 1951”, which is the date the referenced amendments took effect.
- (10) Removing usages of “but not limited to”.
- (11) Removing from § 8 of Article IV a definition providing that “Supreme Court”, as used in § 4 of Article V, means the Superior Court and replacing “Supreme Court” in § 4 of Article V with “Superior Court” for clarity.
- (12) Removing § 11(c) of Article VIII from the Constitution. This provision was not intended to be included in the Constitution as it was drafted as a separate bill section of the bill that proposed and concurred in the constitutional amendment creating § 11(a) and (b). It was intended to apply only to taxes or licenses fees authorized by the General Assembly but not yet effective and so not intended to be included in the Constitution.
- (13) Inserting the effective date of the constitutional amendment that enacted § 12 of Article VIII for clarity.
- (14) Correcting misspellings and misused words.
- (15) Making corrections to Section headings.
- (16) Making technical changes to § 4A of Article V, including to remove an “either” that is inappropriately used in a list of more than 2 items.
- (17) Removing the hyphen in “Lieutenant Governor” and “Attorney General”.
- (18) Changing references to “the State” to “this State”.
- (19) Removing usages of “said”.
Full text
The full text of the measure can be found here.
Amending the Delaware Constitution
The Delaware General Assembly has the authority to amend the state constitution. Unlike in any other state, the state legislature can amend the constitution without a vote of the people. For the legislature to amend the constitution:
- two-thirds of all the members elected to each chamber must vote in favor of a proposed amendment;
- the Delaware Secretary of State must then disseminate the text of the proposed amendment to the general public between 90 and 120 days before the next general election; and
- the subsequent General Assembly then votes again on the proposed amendment(s) and if an amendment receives two-thirds majority approval of all members of each chamber, it becomes part of the constitution.
The amendment in the Delaware General Assembly
House Bill 10 (2025)
State Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown (D-17) introduced the amendment to the state legislature on January 15, 2025. The state House passed the amendment on March 13 in a vote of 34-7. On March 25, the state Senate passed the amendment in a vote of 21-0.[3]
| Votes Required to Pass: 28 | |||
| Yes | No | NV | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 34 | 0 | 7 |
| Total % | 82.9% | 0.0% | 17.1% |
| Democratic (D) | 25 | 0 | 2 |
| Republican (R) | 9 | 0 | 5 |
| Votes Required to Pass: 14 | |||
| Yes | No | NV | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| Total % | 100.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Democratic (D) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Republican (R) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
House Bill 430 (2024)
On June 6, 2024, state Rep. Valerie Longhurst (D-15) introduced the amendment to the state legislature. On June 20, the state House passed the amendment in a vote of 38-0. On June 27, the state Senate passed the amendment in a vote of 21-0.[4]
| Votes Required to Pass: 28 | |||
| Yes | No | NV | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 38 | 0 | 3 |
| Total % | 92.7% | 0.0% | 7.3% |
| Democratic (D) | 26 | 0 | 2 |
| Republican (R) | 12 | 0 | 1 |
| Votes Required to Pass: 14 | |||
| Yes | No | NV | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| Total % | 100.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Democratic (D) | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Republican (R) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
See also
- The Delaware Constitution
- Amending the Delaware Constitution
- State constitutional conventions
- Other constitutional amendments concerning constitutional language
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Delaware State Legislature, "House Bill 10," accessed September 15, 2025
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source.
- ↑ Delaware General Assembly, "House Bill 10," accessed September 15, 2025
- ↑ Delaware General Assembly, "House Bill 430," accessed September 15, 2025
