The California Constitution is one of the longest in the world. Several amendments involved the authorization of the creation of state government agencies, including the
State Compensation Insurance Fund, the
California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and the
State Bar of California; the purpose of such amendments was to insulate the agencies from being attacked as an unconstitutionally broad exercise of
police power or inherent judicial power. Unlike other state constitutions, the California Constitution strongly protects the corporate existence of cities and counties and grants them broad plenary home rule powers. The constitution gives charter cities, in particular, supreme authority over municipal affairs, even allowing such cities' local laws to trump state law. By specifically enabling cities to pay counties to perform governmental functions for them, Section 8 of Article XI resulted in the rise of the
contract city. Article 4, Section 8(d) defines an "urgency statute" as one "necessary for immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety"; any proposed bill including such a provision includes a "statement of facts constituting the necessity" and a two-thirds majority of each house is required to also separately pass the bill's urgency section. Many of the individual rights clauses in the state constitution have been construed as protecting rights broader than the
Bill of Rights in the
federal constitution. Two examples include (1) the
Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins case involving an implied right to
free speech in private
shopping centers, and (2) the first decision in America in 1972 found that the death penalty is
unconstitutional.
California v. Anderson, 6 Cal. 3d 628. This noted that under California's state constitution a stronger protection applies than under the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment; the former prohibits punishments that are "cruel
or unusual", while the latter only prohibits punishments that are "cruel
and unusual". The constitution also confers upon women equality of rights in "entering or pursuing a business, profession, vocation, or employment." This is the earliest state constitutional equal rights provision on record. Two universities are expressly mentioned in the constitution: the
public state-run
University of California and the
private Stanford University. UC is one of only nine state-run public universities in the United States whose independence from political interference is expressly guaranteed by the state constitution. Since 1900, Stanford has enjoyed the benefit of a constitutional clause shielding Stanford-owned property from taxes as long as it is used for educational purposes. ==Amendments and revisions==