Wisconsin’s Declaration of Rights

Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Public Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.


Wisconsin’s Declaration of Rights

Like the U.S. Constitution, each state’s constitution has a bill of rights. Wisconsin’s Declaration of Rights provides for freedom of speech and the rights to assemble and petition, the same as in the U.S. Constitution. But Wisconsin also prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, provisions that are not found in the federal document.

Wisconsin’s Declaration of Rights has been amended over the years. For example, in 1967, Article I, Section 23 was added. It requires the state to “provide for the transportation of children to and from any parochial or private school or institution of learning.”

This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education.

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