The state constitution establishes the basic framework of state government and addresses areas untouched in the federal Constitution, such as education, local finance, and voter qualifications. Each state constitution also includes provisions comparable to the Bill of Rights, protecting the basic rights of its citizens, and covers a variety of other matters. Article 19, section 2 of the Arkansas constitution, for example, prohibits anyone participating in a duel from holding state office for 10 years. A state cannot deprive citizens of federal rights, but it can extend protections beyond those in the federal document. In recent years, the Supreme Court has limited federal constitutional protections for criminal defendants, but some state courts have interpreted comparable clauses in their own constitutions to provide more extensive rights.
State constitutions can be the basis of substantial rights unavailable under federal law.
A year earlier, litigants in another case before the same court had claimed that the state had an obligation under its constitution to provide indigent citizens with a minimal level of subsistence, but the court disagreed. Although state constitutions are similar in function to the U.S. Constitution, in some ways they are quite different. The U.S. Constitution is a venerable, concise document that has been amended only 27 times in more than 200 years. State constitutions tend to be much longer and more detailed, and they are amended and revised regularly. Twenty states still operate under their original constitutions, but most of these have been amended more than 100 times.