Popular assemblies Uniformity of general laws. Military power. Quartering of soldiers. Representation. Imprisonment for debt. Laws prohibited. Rights of foreigners. Slavery prohibited. Search warrants. SEC. 10. The people shall have the right freely to assemble together to consult for the common good, to instruct their Representatives, and to petition the Legislature for redress of grievances. SEC. 11. All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation. SEC. 12. The military shall be subordinate to the civil power. No standing army shall be kept up by this State in time of peace; and, in time of war, no appropriation for a standing army shall be for a longer time than two years. SEC. 13. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, except in the manner to be prescribed by law. SEC. 14. Representation shall be apportioned according to population. SEC. 15. No person shall be imprisoned for debt in any civil action, or mesne or final process, unless in cases of fraud; and no person shall be imprisoned for a militia. fine in time of peace. SEC. 16. No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, shall ever be passed. SEC. 17. Foreigners who are or who may hereafter became bona fide residents of this State, shall enjoy the same rights in respect to the possession, enjoyment, and inheritance of property, as native born citizens. SEC. 18. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime, shall ever be tolerated in this State. SEC. 19. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable seizures and searches, shall not be violated; and no warrant shall issue, but for probable cause, supported by oath. or affirmation, particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons and things to be seized. defined, punished. SEC. 20. Treason against the State shall consist only Treason in levying war against it, adhering to its enemies, or and how giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the evidence of two witnesses to the same overt act, or confession in open Court. SEC. 21. This enumeration of rights shall not be construed to impair or deny others retained by the people. SEC. 22. The Legislature shall have no power to make an appropriation, for any purpose whatever, for a longer period than two years. NOTE. This Article was amended in 1871, by adding Sec. 22, to read as now printed in the text; see Stats. 1869-70, p. 267, ratified in 1871. Popular rights retained by the people. ARTICLE II. RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE. SECTION 1. Who are or may be electors. 2. Privileges of electors. 3. Militia duty, when not to be performed by electors. 5. Who are not electors. 6. Election by ballot. SECTION 1. Every white male citizen of the United States, and every white male citizen of Mexico who shall have elected to become a citizen of the United States, under the treaty of peace exchanged and ratified at Queretaro, on the thirteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, of the age of twenty-one years, who shall have been a resident of the State six months next preceding the election, and the county or district in which he claims his vote thirty days, shall be entitled to vote at all elections which are now or hereafter may be authorized by law; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the Legislature, by a two 69-vol. ii. Who are or electors. may be Privileges of electors. Militia thirds concurrent vote, from admitting to the right of suffrage Indians, or the descendants of Indians, in such special cases as such a proportion of the legislative body may deem just and proper. SEC. 2. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest on the days of election, during their attendance at such election, going to and returning therefrom. SEC. 3. No elector shall be obliged to perform militia duty on the day of election, except in time of war or by electors. public danger. duty, when not to be performed Residence of voters, gained or lost. Who are not electors Election by ballot. SEC. 4. For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason of his presence or absence while employed in the service of the United States, nor while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this State or of the United States, or of the high seas; nor while a student at any seminary of learning; nor while kept at any almshouse, or other asylum, at public expense; nor while confined in any public prison. SEC. 5. No idiot or insane person, or person convicted of any infamous crime, shall be entitled to the privileges of an elector. SEC. 6. All elections by the people shall be by ballot. Three separate departments. ARTICLE III. DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS. SECTION 1. Three separate departments. SECTION 1. The powers of the Government of the State of California shall be divided into three separate departments: the Legislative, the Executive, and Judicial; and no person charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments shall exercise any functions appertaining to either of the others, except in the cases hereinafter expressly directed or permitted. ARTICLE IV. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. SECTION 1. Senate and Assembly, and enacting clause of laws. 2. Sessions of the Legislature. 3. Election and term of Assemblymen. 4. Qualifications of Legislators. 5. Election and term of Senators. 6. Number and classes of Senators. 7. Number of Senators, when increased. 8. Organization of Legislative Houses. 9. What number constitutes a quorum. 10. Rules for their government, and expulsions. 12. Members privileged from arrest and summons. 14. Open doors, and secret sessions. 15. Adjournments, how long and where to. 16. Origin and passage of bills. 17. Bills to be approved by the Governor or returned vetoed; passage over the veto. 18. Assembly to present, and Senate to try articles of impeach ment. 19. What officers liable to impeachment. Judgment in what. 20. Member ineligible to office created during his term of office. 21. Persons holding lucrative offices under the United States Government, etc., ineligible to office under State Government. Proviso. 22. Embezzlement or defalcation of public funds by officer. Penalty. 23. Public moneys and accounts, how disposed of and kept, and published with laws. 24. Compensation, how fixed. 25. Title of laws; how revised and amended. 26. Divorces shall not be granted by Legislature. 27. Lotteries prohibited. 28. Census, when and how taken. Number of members. 29. Apportionment of Legislators. 30. Congressional, Senatorial, and Assembly Districts. 31. Corporations to be formed under general laws. 32. Dues of corporations, and individual liability therefor. 33. What are corporations. Their powers and duties. 34. Banks of deposit authorized. 35. Banks of circulation prohibited. 36. Individual liability of corporators for debt. 37. Organization of municipal corporations. Senate and Assembly, and enacting clause of laws. Sessions of the SECTION 38. Legislative elections to be viva voce. 39. Amendments to Article IV not to affect official incumbency. SECTION 1. The Legislative power of this State shall be vested in a Senate and Assembly, which shall be designated the Legislature of the State of California, and the enacting clause of every law shall be as follows: "The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows." SEC. 2. The sessions of the Legislature shall be bienLegislature nial, and shall commence on the first Monday of December next ensuing the election of its members, unless the Governor of the State shall, in the interim, convene the Legislature by proclamation. No session shall continue longer than one hundred and twenty days. and term of men. Election SEC. 3. The members of the Assembly shall be chosen Assembly- biennially, by the qualified electors of their respective districts, on the first Wednesday in September, unless otherwise ordered by the Legislature, and their term of office shall be two years. Qualifications of SEC. 4. Senators and members of Assembly shall be Legislators duly qualified electors in the respective counties and districts which they represent. Election and term of Senators. Number and classes SEC. 5. Senators shall be chosen for the term of four years, at the same time and places as members of the Assembly; and no person shall be a member of the Senate or Assembly who has not been a citizen and inhabitant of the State and of the county or district for which he shall be chosen one year next before his election. SEC. 6. The number of Senators shall not be less than of Senators. one third, nor more than one half, of that of the members of the Assembly; and at the first session of the Legislature after this section takes effect, the Senators shall be divided by lot, as equally as may be, into two classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, so that one half shall be chosen biennially. |