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The California Constitution: A Historical Overview

Just as there is a Constitution which governs the United States of America, each state has its own separate Constitution as well, and California is no exception. In September 1849, 48 people met together at Colton Hall in the city of Monterey. The purpose of the meeting was to draft the first state Constitution for California. Six weeks later, the work was finished and the state had an official Constitution. With a Constitution in force, California was admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850.

On September 5, 1877, the people of California voted to hold a state convention whose purpose would be to revise the Constitution. The call for a convention was the result of a depressed economy and changing political influences of the time. A new Constitution was adopted by the voters on May 7, 1879.

The Constitution has gone through many revisions to its amendments from 1879 to the present day, and currently consists of a preamble and sections called "articles," numbering from 1 to 34.

The articles of the California Constitution cover many different topics, among which are Legislative, Executive, Judicial, Voting, Education, Water, Local Government, Public Utilities, and, perhaps most important of all, the Declaration of Rights, which provides for freedom of speech and many other individual rights also covered in the Constitution of the United States.

The California Constitution provides for the establishment of a state Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of California is the state's highest court. Its decisions are binding on all other California state courts, which include the appellate and trial courts. The state Constitution gives the Supreme Court the authority to review decisions of the state Courts of Appeal. This power to review allows the Supreme Court to decide important legal questions and to uphold consistency in the state's laws. The Supreme Court can select only a few parts of a case to review, or it may review the whole case.

The Constitution also directs the Supreme Court to review all cases in which a judgment of death has been pronounced by the trial court. Under the law of the state, these death penalty cases are automatically appealed directly from the trial court to the Supreme Court, without first having to go through the appellate court.

The Supreme Court of California consists of one Chief Justice and six associate justices, all of whom are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments. The appointments are also confirmed by the California voters at the next general election, and each of the seven Supreme Court justices, including the Chief Justice, has to be placed on the general ballot for a approval vote every twelve years.

In order to be considered for appointment to the Supreme Court, a person must be an attorney admitted to practice law in California or have served as a judge of a court in the state for 10 years up to the time of appointment by the Governor.

Two Types of Courts

California has two types of courts: 58 trial courts, one in each county, and appellate courts. Trial courts are the superior courts; appellate courts are the six districts of the Courts of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. In the trial courts, a judge and sometimes a jury hears witnesses' testimony and other evidence and decides cases by applying the relevant law to the relevant facts. In the appellate courts, cases are appealed to judges by people who are not satisfied with a trial court decision. The California courts serve nearly 34 million people.

Trial Courts

Before June 1998, California's trial courts consisted of superior and municipal courts, each with its own jurisdiction and number of judges fixed by the Legislature. Superior courts now have trial jurisdiction over all felony cases and all general civil cases. Nearly 8.8 million cases were filed in the trial courts at some 400 court locations throughout the state during 1998-1999.
Your Rights In Court
You have rights guaranteed by the Constitutions and statutes of the United States and California. These rights include:

The right to sue for money owed and for other relief;
The right to defend yourself against a lawsuit;
The right to be presumed innocent if charged with a crime;
The right to defend yourself against all criminal charges;
The right to a public and speedy trial by jury if charged with a misdemeanor or a felony;
The right to an attorney at public expense if you are charged with a felony or misdemeanor and cannot afford an attorney.

The Courts of Appeal

The Courts of Appeal were established by an amendment to the California Constitution in 1904, and they are California's intermediate courts of review, between the trial courts and the Supreme Court. California has six appellate districts, each one having at least one division. The six appellate districts have 19 divisions and a total of 105 justices who preside in those courts

The Courts of Appeal have the authority to hear appeals from the trial courts throughout the state. An example: when a verdict or judgment is reached in a trial, like a personal injury case involving an automobile accident, and the losing party in the case wants to appeal the decision, the case goes to the Court of Appeal for review. Cases on appeal are decided by three-judge panels. The decisions of the panels are called opinions, and sometimes those opinions are published in a legal newspaper, so that lawyers throughout the state can read them and perhaps use them to argue their own cases.

Each division of the Courts of Appeal has a presiding justice and two or more associate justices, appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Commission on Judicial appointments. The same rules which govern the selection of Supreme Court justices also apply to the justices who serve on the California Courts of Appeal.

State Supreme Court

Supreme Court: The state's highest court, the Supreme Court may grant review of cases decided by the Courts of Appeal. Certain other cases, such as death penalty appeals and disciplinary cases involving judges and attorneys, are appealed directly to this court. At least four of the seven justices must agree on decisions. The court's decisions are binding on all other state courts.