> And since when Richmond is a state? You can read the constitution by spirit or by the letter. You cannot have both.

There is no local sovereignty in the United States, except for whatever a state chooses to delegate to its municipalities. (This is why you hear about states that take over failing cities' schools and finances. The city possesses no sovereignty.)

All of Richmond's powers derive from the State of California. If California is prohibited from doing something, then so is Richmond.

Don't local governments simply operate as agents of the state they're in? I could be wrong about this, but I thought that they were simply organizational conveniences with no true independence, as contrasted with the states and the feds, here the states are independent entities bound by certain rules.