The law of Connecticut is the system of law and legal precedent of the U.S. state of Connecticut. Sources of law include the Constitution of Connecticut and the Connecticut General Statutes. Legal history Fundamental Orders of Connecticut The Fundamental Orders were adopted by the Connecticut Colony council on January 14, 1639 OS (January 24, 1639 NS). The fundamental orders describe the government set up by the Connecticut River towns, setting its structure and powers. They wanted the government to have access to the open ocean for trading. The Orders have the features of a written constitution and are considered by some as the first written Constitution in the Western tradition. Thus, Connecticut earned its nickname of The Constitution State. Connecticut historian John Fiske was the first to claim that the Fundamental Orders were the first written Constitution, a claim disputed by some modern historians. The orders were transcribed into the official colony records by the colony's secretary Thomas Welles. It was a Constitution the government that Massachusetts had set up. However, this Order gave men more voting rights and made more men eligible to run for elected positions. Colonial law Originally, the first revision of the early laws and orders of Connecticut (the Code of 1650) was not printed. Prior to the revision of 1672, which was printed in 1675, the laws and orders of the General Court were promulgated only by manuscript copies. They were recorded in the public records of the court, and also in the town records, and it was made the duty of the constables of the several towns to publish such laws as should be made from time to time, and annually, to read the capital news at some public meeting. The laws were few and simple, yet they were such as the exigencies of the commonwealth required, and such as may be supposed to exist in the infancy of civil governments. The Connecticut Supreme Court struck down the "Blue Laws" in 1979 as an unconstitutional breach of the due process and equal protection clauses of the United States Constitution. Since 1818 Since the famous constitution of 1818 was adopted, revisions to the Connecticut General Statutes have occurred at intervals of a few years; although the first, that of 1821, was in force for a quarter of a century. In 1835, references to judicial decisions were printed for the first time; and some years afterwards,