Bitter Bidder not Better City councils are routinely called upon to consider and then award contracts for public works projects. Generally speaking, these contracts must be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder. The difference between the two is usually significant. The California Supreme Court has decided this issue favorably to local governments, holding that where the lowest responsible bidder is wrongfully denied a public contract, the monetary damages are limited to its bid preparation costs. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a city is prohibited from regulating cable broadband Internet access, and therefore a city may not condition the transfer of a cable franchise on nondiscriminatory access to the franchisee's cable broadband network.
Federal law permits a city to condition the transfer.
In addition to their own restrictions against doing business with countries whose human rights policies are bankrupt, a number of cities in California are also prohibited from purchasing goods and services from companies who do business with such countries. The state law was successfully challenged on grounds that it was invalid under the federal Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court finding that the state law was an obstacle to accomplishing all of Congress' objectives under the federal act and would potentially be at odds with the president's authority to speak for the United States in these matters. If You're not a Member, You Can't Come in Before Proposition 198 passed in 1996 and changed the way voters could vote in California's primary elections, only registered Democrats could vote for the Democratic candidates, only registered Republicans could vote for Republican candidates, and so forth. Prop. 198 changed the process to a blanket primary so that each voter's ballot would list every candidate regardless of party affiliation. The candidate who receives the most votes is the party's nominee for the general election.