California State Assembly

The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the upper house being the California State Senate). The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento.

Neither house has been expanded since the ratification of the 1879 Constitution, and each of the 80 members represent at least 490,000 people, more than any other state lower house.

Members of the California State Assembly are generally referred to using the titles Assemblyman, Assemblywoman, or Assemblymember. In the current legislative session, Democrats have a three-fourths supermajority of 60 seats, while Republicans control a minority of 20 seats.

The speaker presides over the State Assembly in the chief leadership position, controlling the flow of legislation and committee assignments. The speaker is nominated by the caucus of the majority party and elected by the full Assembly. Other leaders, such as the majority and minority leaders, are elected by their respective party caucuses according to each party's strength in the chamber.

The current speaker is Democrat Robert Rivas (29th–Hollister). The majority leader is Democrat Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (4th–Winters), while the minority leader is Republican James Gallagher (3rd–Yuba City).

Members are allowed, by current term limits, to serve 12 years in the legislature in any combination of four-year State Senate or two-year State Assembly terms. However, members elected to the Legislature prior to 2012 are restricted to three two-year terms (six years). Few, if any, legislators remain from this era, though the restriction could affect future candidates running after a hiatus from office.

Every two years, all 80 seats in the Assembly are subject to election. This is in contrast to the State Senate, in which only half of its 40 seats are subject to election every two years.

The chamber's green tones are based on the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The dais rests along a wall shaped like an "E", with its central projection housing the rostrum. Along the cornice appears a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and a Latin quotation: legislatorum est justas leges condere ("It is the duty of legislators to pass just laws"). Almost every decorating element is identical to the Senate Chamber.