6 1 2 Representatives (continued)- shall not adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place, without consent of Senate privilege from arrest. not to be appointed to certain offices.... vacancies in, how supplied........... for adjournment), to be approved by the President...... Rights of the citizen declared to be: liberty of conscience in matters of religion........ Amendment of peace, and in time of war, except as prescribed by law unless on presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury... himself.... course of law..... compensation right of a speedy public trial, by an impartial jury of the vicinage, and the means necessary for his detense amined according to the rules of the common law..... twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved posed, or cruel or unusual punishments inflicted......... Rights, that the enumeration of certain shall not operate to disparage others retained ..... how chosen, classified, and terms of service........ sentees..... place, without the consent of the other house...... by law........ Art. Sec. ................ ............ Senate of the United States (continued)- shall not be questioned elsewhere for any speech or debate in the house... shall not be appointed to certain offices.... Senators and Representatives, election of, how prescribed... who are disqualitied from being .... Senator, shall not be an elector of President........... Slavery, abolished.. Amendment new, may be admitted into the Union........... tion of two or more.... States supreme.. tection against invasion, and domestic violence... Taxes, on persons imported, not to exceed ten dollars.......... direct, how apportioned....... on exports, prohibited...... concerning.. in representation in Congress, how filled. arrive, or from which they depart......... also........ may be removed by impeachment..... ment.. fifth amendment........... .................................. CONSTITUTION OF CALIFORNIA. ADOPTED BY THE CONVENTION, OCTOBER TENTH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE; RATIFIED BY THE PEOPLE, NOVEMBER THIRTEENTH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE; PROCLAIMED, DECEMBER TWENTIETH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINE; AND AMENDED, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO. PRE AMBLE. WE, the People of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, in order to secure its blessings, do establish this Constitution. NOTE.—The term “sovereignty” expresses the supreme political authority of an independent State or Nation, and whatever rights are essential to the existence of this authority are sovereign rights—such are the rights to declare war, to make treaties of peace, to levy taxes, to take private property for public use, and the like. In this country sovereignty resides in the people, and its authority is exercised through the Federal and State Governments. To the Federal Government has been delegated certain rights of sovereignty, and the exercise of all other sovereign rights is reserved by the people of the States, or vested by them in their local governments. To say that a State of the Union is sovereign, is but to say that such a State possesses all the rights and powers essential to the existence of an independent political organization, except as they are withdrawn by the provisions of the Federal Constitution.Moore vs. Smaw, and Fremont vs. Flower, 17 Cal., p. 199. At common law the right to the mines of precious 47-VOL. II.-POL. metals was not an incident of sovereignty, but a personal prerogative of the King, which could be alienated at his pleasure. The ownership of the precious metals found in public or private lands stands in no different relation to the sovereignty of a State than any other property which is the subject of barter and sale.- Moore vs. Smaw; Fremont vs. Flower, 17 Cal., p. 199. The State Constitution is not a grant of power nor an enabling Act to the Legislature. It is a limitation on the general powers of a legislative character, and restrains only so far as the restriction, either by express terms or by necessary implication.- Bourland vs. Hildreth, 26 Cal.. p. 183; Smith vs. Judge Twelfth District Court, 17 Cal., p. 547; People vs. Rogers, 13 Cal., p. 159; People vs. Coleman, 4 Cal., p. 46; Hobart vs. Supervi. sors of Butte, 17 Cal., p. 30; People vs. Bigler, 5 Cal., p. 23; People vs. Seymour, 16 Cal., p. 332; Bourland vs. Hildreth, 26 Cal., p. 162. The legislative department of our State Government is not like the “ Congress of the United States," restricted in its sphere of action by a fixed chart of delegated powers. Its power represents the independent sovereignty of the people of the State, and is supreme and unlimited in all legitimate subject matters of legislation, and controlled only by such restrictions as are imposed by the organic law of the State.- Beals vs. Amador County, 35 Cal., p. 630. As the State Constitution is not a grant of power, an express enumeration of legislative powers is not an exclusion of others not named, unless the enumeration is accompanied by negative terms. Ex Parte McCarthy, 29 Cal., p. 396. The Constitution is a law, and the judiciary, from the very nature of the powers given it, must construe it.-Nougues vs. Douglass, 7 Cal., p. 65. Courts may declare the action of the Legislature unconstitutional, when that action violates the supreme law; but Courts have no means to avoid the effects of non-action.-Myers vs. English, 9 Cal., p. 341. In the exposition of Constitutions as of inferior laws, the solemn, deliberate, and long settled precedents of Courts, and the practice and acquiescence of governments and people, should possess controlling weight.-Ferris vs. Coover, 11 Cal., p. 178. Judicial interpretation of a constitutional provision made near the time of its adoption is strong evidence that the people in adopting it understood and intended it to be as interpreted.Knowles vs. Yeates, 31 Cal., p. 82. When the convention, in framing the organic law of the State, thought proper to borrow provisions from the Constitutions of other States, which provisions had already received judi |