California State Legislature

The profile

Article IV of the California Constitution vests the legislative power of the state in the California Legislature, "which consists of the Senate and Assembly, but the people reserve to themselves the powers of initiative and referendum". The Senate has 40 members elected for four-year terms, half of them every two years, and the Assembly 80 elected for two, and no one may serve more than 12 years across the two houses. A bill passes only on a recorded roll call with a majority of the membership of each house, must be published online in its final form for 72 hours before the vote, and becomes a statute when the Governor signs it or does not return it in time; a veto is overridden by two-thirds of each house. A statute enacted at a regular session takes effect on the 1 January following a 90-day period from enactment. In the 2025-26 session it passed AB 2409, which bars state and local officers, and employees with authority over bids and contracts, from issuing a memecoin and bars digital asset service providers from listing for Californians a memecoin issued from 1 January 2027 that is offered by or with a public official, and SB 1208, which extends the crime of money laundering to digital assets and creates a warrant and forfeiture procedure for them. The Governor announced both as signed on 27 September 2026.