Home Rule Charters of California

As part of the great and delicate balance between competing interests and powers delegated and defined by the U. S. Constitution, the 10th Amendment states "...powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."As these powers devolve from the federal to the state level, so in turn they reach down from states to their own cities, towns, and other municipalities. In the U. S., home rule refers to the authority of a constituent part of a U. S. state to exercise powers of governance delegated to it by its state government. In some states, known as home rule states, the state's constitution grants municipalities and/or counties the ability to pass laws to govern themselves as they see fit (so long as they obey the state and federal constitutions). This, the seventeenth volume in our quick reference series, contains the home rule charters of Palm Springs, Palmdale, Palo Alto, Pasadena, and Petaluma, California. Follow up volumes cover all the remaining home rule charters of California, including the charters of the state's counties. Beyond the State of California, additional series are available for all other states that allow home rule chartered municipalities.