The Constitution of the State of California was adopted in November 1849.  California attained U.S. statehood in 1850.  The current constitution was ratified on May 7, 1879.  The constitution establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the California government.  The 1879 constitution is the third longest in the world.  The California Constitution strongly protects the corporate existence of cities and counties by granting them broad plenary home rule powers.  Many of the individual rights clauses in the California constitution are broader than the Bill of Rights in the federal constitution.

The three modes of amending the California Constitution are:

• The process of a legislatively referred constitutional amendment under Section 1 of Article XVIII of the constitution.
• The process of an initiated constitutional amendment, under Section 3 of Article XVIII and Section 8 of Article II.
• The process of a constitutional convention under Section 2 of Article XVIII.

Full text of California Constitution: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/const-toc.html