Constitution of California

The Constitution of California is the primary organizing law of the U.S. state of California, describing the duties, powers, structures and functions of the state government. It was drafted in both English and Spanish by American pioneers, European settlers and Californios, and adopted at the 1849 Constitutional Convention of Monterey, after the American conquest of California and the Mexican-American War and ahead of statehood in 1850. It was heavily amended and ratified on 7 May 1879 following the Sacramento Convention of 1878 to 1879. Courts have read many of its individual rights clauses as protecting more than the federal Bill of Rights, for example free speech rights beyond the First Amendment in Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, and its ban on cruel or unusual punishment is stronger than the Eighth Amendment. Because ballot propositions can amend it by simple majority, it has been amended about five times a year and is among the longest constitutions in the world, a length critics blame on overly lax amendment procedures.