23. If a law is passed providing that certain acts may
be done upon the contingency of a vote of the electors
of a certain district, the vote upon such a proposition
is not an act of legislation but simply an event upon
the happening of which the law is to take effect.-Rob-
inson vs. Bidwell, 22 Cal., p. 379. The Legislature
can delegate the power to the voters of a county to
select a county seat.-Upham vs. Supervisors, 8 Cal.,
p. 378. The Legislature may authorize the transfer of
convicts to private individuals, and inay lease the labor
of future convicts.-State vs. McCauley, 15 Cal., p.
429. The record of a judgment of another State, if
certified in accordance with the Act of Congress, is
admissible in evidence in this State. The Legislature
has the constitutional power to require a less amount
of proof than is required by the Act of Congress.-
Whitwell vs. Barbier, 7 Cal., p. 54. In the passage of
an Act the Legislature may refer to an Act unconstitu-
tional in itself to indicate its will in respect to a con-
stitutional purpose.-People vs. Bircham, 12 Cal., p. 50.

of the

SEC. 2. The sessions of the Legislature shall be bien- Sessions nial, and shall commence on the first Monday of December Legislature 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.

SEC. 3. The members of the Assembly shall be chosen 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.

Election
Assembly-

and term of

men.

tions of

SEC. 4. Senators and members of Assembly shall be Qualificaduly qualified electors in the respective counties and districts which they represent.

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.

50-VOL. II.-POL.

Legislators

Election
Senators.

and term of

Number

and classes

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

Number of

Senators,

when

increased.

Organization of

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.

SEC. 7. When the number of Senators is increased they shall be apportioned by lot, so as to keep the two classes as nearly equal in number as possible.

SEC. 8. Each House shall choose its own officers, and Legislative judge of the qualifications, elections, and returns of its own members.

Houses.

What number

a quorum.

SEC. 9. A majority of each House shall constitute a constitutes quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide.

Rules for their government, and

SEC. 10. Each House shall determine the rule of its own proceedings, and may, with the concurrence of two expulsions thirds of all the members elected, expel a member.

Each

House to

keep a Journal.

Members privileged

and

summons.

SEC. 11. Each House shall keep a Journal of its own proceedings, and publish the same; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of any three members present, be entered on the Journal.

SEC. 12. Members of the Legislature shall, in all cases from arrest except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest, and shall not be subject to any civil process during the session of the Legislature, nor for fifteen days next before the commencement and after the termination of each session.

Vacancies, how filled.

SEC. 13. When vacancies occur in either House, the Governor, or the person exercising the functions of the

Governor, shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

SEC. 14. The doors of each House shall be open, except on such occasions as, in the opinion of the House, may require secrecy.

SEC. 15. Neither House shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which they may be sitting.

SEC. 16. Any bill may originate in either House of the Legislature, and all bills passed by one House may be amended in the other.

SEC. 17. Every bill which may have passed the Legislature shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the Governor. If he approve it, he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections, to the House in which it originated, which shall enter the same upon the Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, it again pass both Houses, by yeas and nays, by a majority of two thirds of the members of each House present, it shall become a law, notwithstanding the Governor's objections. If any bill shall not be returned within ten days after it shall have been presented to him (Sundays excepted), the same shall become a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Legislature, by adjournment, prevent such return.

NOTE. The ten days given the Governor in which to return a bill must be computed by excluding the day on which the bill was presented to the Governor, and the Sundays that may intervene.-Price vs. Whitman, 8 Cal., p. 412. In computing the ten days within which a bill may be returned by the Governor, the day on which the bill was presented to the Governor must be excluded from the computation.-Iron Mountain Co. vs. Haight, 39 Cal., p. 540. An adjournment of either House from day to day is not such an adjournment as would prevent the Governor from returning a bill with his objections. If on the last day on which the bill can be returned the House has adjourned for the day, the bill should be placed beyond the Executive control

Open doors sessions.

and secret

Adjournments, how long and

where to.

Origin and bills.

passage of

Bills to be
approved
by the
etc.

Governor,

Impeachment.

What

officers liable to impeachment, etc.

Member ineligible to office

by delivery to the President, Secretary, or other proper officer of the House, or it becomes a law.-Harpending vs. Haight, 39 Cal., p. 189.

SEC. 18. The Assembly shall have the sole power of impeachment, and all impeachments shall be tried by the Senate. When sitting for that purpose, the Senators shall be upon oath or affirmation; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.

SEC. 19. The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Controller, Treasurer, Attorney General, Surveyor General, Justices of the Supreme Court, and Judges of the District Court, shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office; but judgment in such cases shall extend only to removal from office and disqualification to hold any office of honor, trust, or profit under the State; but the party convicted or acquitted shall, nevertheless, be liable to indictment, trial, and punishment according to law. All other civil officers shall be tried for misdemeanor in office in such a manner as the Legislature may provide.

SEC. 20. No Senator or member of Assembly shall, during the term for which he shall have been elected, be during his appointed to any civil office of profit under this State

created

term of

office.

Persons holding lucrativo offices

under the United States Government, etc.

which shall have been created or the emoluments of which shall have been increased during such term, except such offices as may be filled by election by the people.

SEC. 21. No person holding any lucrative office under the United States, or any other power, shall be eligible to any civil office of profit under this State; provided, that officers in the militia to which there is attached no annual salary, or local officers and Postmasters, whose compensation does not exceed five hundred dollars per annum, shall not be deemed lucrative.

NOTE.-The word "eligible " in this section means capable of being chosen;-the subject of selection-or the choice; and the term "compensation" means the income of the office-not its profits.-Searcy vs. Grow, 15 Cal., p. 117. The Federal office of Surveyor General

is a "lucrative office," and the office of Controller is an
"office of profit."-Melony vs. Whitman, 10 Cal., p. 38.
Quere-Whether the place of Inspector of Customs
is a "lucrative office" within the constitutional mean-
ing of that term.-Saunders vs. Haynes, 13 Cal., p. 145;
see, also, People vs. Turner, 20 Cal., p. 142.

ment or

of public

officer.

SEC. 22. No person who shall be convicted of the em- Embezzlebezzlement or defalcation of the public funds of this defalcation State shall ever be eligible to any office of honor, trust, or funds by profit under this State; and the Legislature shall, as Penalty. soon as practicable, pass a law providing for the punishment of such embezzlement or defalcation as a felony.

money and

how

and kept,

SEC. 23. No money shall be drawn from the Treasury Public but in consequence of appropriations made by law. An accounts, accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of disposed of the public moneys shall be attached to and published etc. with the laws at every regular session of the Legislature.

NOTE. To an appropriation nothing more is requisite than a designation of the amount and the Fund out of which it shall be paid; it is not necessary that funds to meet the same should be in the Treasury.McCauley vs. Brooks, 16 Cal., p. 11.

SEC. 24. The members of the Legislature shall receive for their services a compensation to be fixed by law, and paid out of the public Treasury; but no increase of the compensation shall take effect during the term for which the members of either House shall have been elected.

Compensafixed.

tion, how

laws, etc.

SEC. 25. Every law enacted by the Legislature shall Title of embrace but one object, and that shall be expressed in the title; and no law shall be revised or amended by reference to its title; but in such case the Act revised or section amended shall be reënacted and published at length.

NOTE. This section is directory, and does not defeat Acts passed in violation of it.-Pierpont vs. Crouch, 10 Cal., p. 315; Ex Parte Newman, 9 Cal., p. 502; Washington vs. Page, 4 Cal., p. 388; De Witt vs. S. F., 2 Cal., p. 289. The amendment of a statute operates as an absolute repeal of the old statute or section amended.-Billings vs. Harvey, 6 Cal., p. 381.