State of Washington Eminent Domain, Amendment 9 (1920)

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Amendments

Amendment 9, a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment to the Washington State Constitution, was on the November 1920 ballot in the State of Washington, where it was approved.

Election results

Amendment 9
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		121,022	51.67%
No		113,287	48.35%

Amendment 9 amended to Article I, Section 16 of the Washington State Constitution. It was the 9th amendment approved to the Washington State Constitution subsequent to its adoption in 1889.

It changed Section 16 to say this:

"Private property shall not be taken for private use, except for private ways of necessity, and for drains, flumes, or ditches on or across the lands of others for agricultural, domestic, or sanitary purposes. No private property shall be taken or damaged for public or private use without just compensation having been first made, or paid into court for the owner, and no right-of-way shall be appropriated to the use of any corporation other than municipal until full compensation therefor be first made in money, or ascertained and paid into court for the owner, irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation, which compensation shall be ascertained by a jury, unless a jury be waived, as in other civil cases in courts of record, in the manner prescribed by law. Whenever an attempt is made to take private property for a use alleged to be public, the question whether the contemplated use be really public shall be a judicial question, and determined as such, without regard to any legislative assertion that the use is public: Provided, That the taking of private property by the state for land reclamation and settlement purposes is hereby declared to be for public use."

Old text

Prior to Amendment 9's approval, Section 16 of Article I said:

"Private property shall not be taken for private use, except for private ways of necessity, and for drains, flumes or ditches on or across the lands of others for agricultural, domestic or sanitary purposes. No private property shall be taken or damaged for public or private use without just compensation having first been made, or paid into court for the owner, and no right of way shall be appropriated to the use of any corporation other than municipal, until full compensation therefor be first made in money, or ascertained and paid into the court for the owner, irrespective of any benefit from any improvement proposed by such corporation, which compensation shall be ascertained by a jury, unless a jury be waived as in other civil cases in courts of record, in the manner prescribed by law. Whenever an attempt is made to take private property for a use alleged to be public, the question whether the contemplated use be really public shall be a judicial question, and determined as such without regard to any legislative assertion that the use is public."

See also

• Washington 1920 ballot measures
• 1920 ballot measures
• List of Washington ballot measures
• List of ballot measures by year
• List of ballot measures by state

Suggest a link

External links

• Washington State Constitution
• Washington 1920 Election Results
• Washington 1920 Voter Guide

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