<P> In the United States, each state has its own constitution . </P> <P> Usually, they are much longer than the Constitution of the United states which only contains 4,543 words . State constitutions are usually longer than 8,500 - words because they are more detailed regarding the day - to - day relationships between government and the people . The shortest is the Constitution of Vermont, adopted in 1793 and currently 8,295 words long . The longest is Alabama's sixth and current constitution, ratified in 1901, about 345,000 words long . Both the federal and state constitutions are organic texts: they are the fundamental blueprints for the legal and political organizations of the United States and the states, respectively . </P> <P> The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, provides that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people ." The Guarantee Clause of Article 4 of the Constitution states that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government ." These two provisions indicate states did not surrender their wide latitude to adopt a constitution, the fundamental documents of state law, when the U.S. Constitution was adopted . </P>

Why are state constitutions usually longer than the u.s. constitution