As spelled out in Article II, Section 13 of the California Constitution, the recall is the power of the electors to remove an elected officer. The process is initiated by filing a petition alleging a reason for the recall. But per Section 14 of Article II, “sufficiency of reason is not reviewable.” As such,
I sat down (over Zoom) with Chris Micheli to talk about his new book, Understanding the California Legislative Process. The new book breaks down how the legislative process in California works, taking provisions of the California Constitution, California Government Code, Assembly, Senate, and Joint Rules and explaining them in plain English.
I talked
While a referendum is commonly used to refer to the practice of submitting a question or a measure to a popular vote of the electorate, such as Brexit in the United Kingdom, in the US states that have direct democracy – about two dozen of them – the referendum is used by the electorate
The referendum is one of the three forms of direct democracy in California. It is the power of the voters to approve or reject statutes either in part or in whole. So, what is subject to a referendum?
Pursuant to Article II, Section 9 of the California Constitution, any statute – either in part
Like bills, resolutions and concurrent resolutions are mentioned several times in Article IV of California’s Constitution but are not defined in either the California Constitution or California Government Code. Unlike bills, there is no Schoolhouse Rock definition for resolutions.
The traditional definition of a resolution is a written motion that’s considered for adoption by
Today’s post answers the question, what is a bill? Despite the fact that members of the California Legislature draft thousands of bills every year no definition for the term “bill” can be found in the California Constitution or California’s Government Code. Although, it has been defined by Schoolhouse Rock.
Bills only apply to
There are several code sections of the California Government Code that set forth the enactment of statutes and the adoption of a resolution by the Legislature. These statutes were originally enacted in 1943 in the Government Code. They’re found in Title 2, Division 2, Part 1, Chapter 5. I’ll discuss some of these sections
Oversight is intended to ensure government accountability. A critical role for the legislative branch of government is oversight regarding the executive branch activities. Fundamentally, oversight is intended to ensure government accountability and make certain that tax dollars are spent properly and efficiently by the executive branch of state government.
Now in 2017, Assembly Committee
What are some of the standard bases for gubernatorial vetoes and what are some of the themes that have emerged with Governor Newsom’s vetoes? This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it gives a flavor for some of the things chief executives might use to determine whether to sign or veto pending
When a bill is passed by the California Legislature and sent to the Governor, there are three actions that are allowed.
One is the Governor can sign the bill into law, making it a statute. The second is the Governor can veto the bill or reject it. The third option is that the Governor