Amendment will remove word ‘orphan’ from Alabama Constitution

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - A “yes” vote on Amendment 5 will remove the term “orphans’ business” from the Alabama Constitution because the term “orphan” isn’t used anymore.

“There’s nothing in Alabama law that deals with orphans, so there’s no orphans quarter, no orphans law here in Alabama as is exist,” said Montgomery County Probate Judge, JC Love.

This is what the ballot will read on Nov. 8: “Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to delete a provision giving the probate court of each county general jurisdiction over orphans’ business.”

This deletion will reflect how juvenile matters are currently handled and won’t change the powers of a probate judge.

“And so dealing for minors as well as for the incapacitated as well as the wills and administrations is covered by other code sections,” said Love.

Removing the language is part of a larger effort to make changes to the Alabama constitution. This change was started by the Alabama Law Institute.

“One of the jobs of the law institute is to look for obsolete provisions in the code in the Constitution and revise or take those out if possible,” said David Kimberley with the institute.

“Just looking at the function of offices and how they work I just there just been an effort to remove language that is unnecessary, harmful or hateful from our constitution,” said Love.

When the amendment was in the statehouse, it passed with an overwhelming majority.

You can read the complete amendment here.

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