Jones v. Falcey

222 A.2d 134, 92 N.J. Super. 45, 1966 N.J. Super. LEXIS 477
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedJuly 8, 1966
StatusPublished

This text of 222 A.2d 134 (Jones v. Falcey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jones v. Falcey, 222 A.2d 134, 92 N.J. Super. 45, 1966 N.J. Super. LEXIS 477 (N.J. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

Wick, J. S. C.

This court heretofore determined that the prior congressional apportionment statute of New Jersey was unconstitutional under the cases of Reynolds v. Sims, 377 [48]*48U. S. 533, 84 S. Ct. 1362, 12 L. Ed. 2d 506 (1964), and Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 82 S. Ct. 691, 7 L. Ed. 2d 663 (1962), and reserved nnto itself the right to further action in the event the Legislature failed to act on reapportionment by July 1, 1966.

The Legislature has now passed two bills, Senate No. 469 and Senate No. 481, now chapters 156 and 183, Laws of 1966, upon the signatures of the Governor and Acting Governor on June 18, 1966 and June 27, 1966, respectively.

Plaintiffs and the intervenors attack these laws on constitutional grounds, asserting that there has been demonstrated a pattern of general disregard for the lines of established political subdivisions, citing the break-up of Newark and Jersey City and the counties of Union, Middlesex, Ocean and Camden ; and that in disregarding established political lines there is no excuse for deviations of plus 7.1% to minus 7.3%, and particularly is this so after the passage of the amending statute which creates a deviation up to plus 8.7%; and further, that both statutes change the alignment of Bergen County from an east-west division to a north-south division.

The basic law is found in Reynolds v. Sims, and Baker v. Carr, supra, and in Westberry v. Saunders, 376 U. S. 1, 84 S. Ct. 526, 11 L. Ed. 2d 481 (1964), wherein the United States Supreme Court held that the constitutional requirement in Article I, Section II, that representatives be chosen “by the People of the several States,” means that as nearly as practicable one person’s vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another’s.

Proofs were presented in the form of a television interview of Senator Jeremiah E. O’Connor held on Sunday, June 5, 1966, which is of questionable value as evidence; the report of the “Meyner Commission”; the two bills enacted into law; the legislative history of the two bills; the voting record of the three municipalities moved by chapter 183, and judicial notice was asked to be taken of the census of these moved municipalities as set forth in the 1964 and 1965 Legislative Manuals.

[49]*49Plaintiffs and intervenors contend that in reference to congressional redistricting, the courts without exception have hold that numerical equality of districts is the ultimate goal. Deviations have been permitted from numerical precision where necessary to accommodate other permissible factors. Preisler v. Hearnes, 362 S. W. 2d 552 (Mo. Sup. Ct. 1962), hold against the contention of plaintiff that more equal apportionment could have been achieved by dividing counties. The court said:

“However, counties are important governmental units in which the people are accustomed to working together. Therefore it has always been the policy of this state in creating districts of more than one county (congressional, judicial or senatorial) to have them composed of entire counties.”

The Missouri Legislature departed from this only with regard to its two largest counties, where the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City were located. The court further observed:

“Therefore, any redistricting agreed upon must always be a compromise. Mathematical exactness is not required or in fact obtainable and a compromise, for which there is any reasonable basis, is an exercise of legislative discretion that the courts must respect.”

Recognition of political subdivisions was dealt with in Baker v. Clement, 247 F. Supp. 886 (D. C. M. D. Tenn. 1965) ; Drum v. Seawell, 249 F. Supp. 877 (D. C. M. D. N. C. 1965), and specifically in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 84 S. Ct. 1362, 12 L. Ed. 2d 506 (1964), whore the court said:

“A State may legitimately desire to maintain the integrity of various political subdivisions, insofar as possible, and provide for compact districts of contiguous territory in designing a legislative apportionment scheme. Valid considerations may underlie such aims. Indiscriminate districting, without any regard for political subdivision or natural or historical boundary lines, may be little more than an open invitation to partisan gerrymandering. Single-member districts may be the rule in one State, while another State might desire to achieve some flexibility by creating multi-member or floterial districts. Whatever the means of accomplishment, the overriding objective must be substantial equality of population among the various districts, so that [50]*50the vote of any citizen is approximately equal in weight to that of any other citizen of the State.” (84 S. Ct., at p. 1390, 12 L. Ed. 2d, at p. 537)

As heretofore mentioned, chapter 183 does cross six county-lines, leaving intact the 15 remaining counties. Oddly enough, plans submitted by both groups of intervenors also cross six county lines.

In Roman v. Sincock, 377 U. S. 695, 84 S. Ct. 1449, 12 L. Ed. 2d 620 (1964), concerning the State of Delaware, Chief Justice Warren said:

“* * * Bather, the proper jurisdictional approach is to ascertain whether, under the particular circumstances existing in the individual State whose legislative apportionment is at issue, there has been a faithful adherence to a plan of population-based representation, with such minor deviations only as may occur in recognizing certain factors that are free from any taint of arbitrariness or discrimination.”

The court is called upon to decide as a matter of fact that by interfering with county lines, by creating districts with such so-called large deviations, and the realignment of Bergen County, that partisan gerrymandering has taken place and therefore the act is unconstitutional. Factually, the court cannot find that the districts so created are done so with the taint of arbitrariness or discrimination.

That the court might agree that there has been partisan gerrymandering is of no benefit to plaintiffs and intervenors. As stated in WMCA v. Lomenzo, 238 F. Supp. 916 (S. D. N. Y. 1965), such an issue is nonjusticiable. The ease was affirmed per curiam by the United States Supreme Court, 382 U. S. 4, 86 S. Ct. 24, 15 L. Ed. 2d 2 (1965), and in a concurring opinion, Justice Harlan said:

“In WMCA, Inc. v. Lomenzo, D. C., 288 F. Supp. 916, the three-judge court found that Plan A satisfied this order; in so doing it rejected contentions that apportioning on a basis of citizen population violates the federal Constitution, and that partisan ‘gerrymandering’ may be subject to federal constitutional attack under the Fourteenth Amendment. In affirming this decision, this Court necessarily affirms these two eminently correct principles.”

[51]*51The overtone of racial discrimination by the creation of the Eleventh and Twelfth Districts by chapter 183 is not proven as a fact, and the law therefor is fully set forth in Wright v. Rockefeller, 376 U. S. 52, 84 S. Ct. 603, 11 L. Ed. 2d

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Related

Baker v. Carr
369 U.S. 186 (Supreme Court, 1962)
Wesberry v. Sanders
376 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1964)
Reynolds v. Sims
377 U.S. 533 (Supreme Court, 1964)
Roman v. Sincock
377 U.S. 695 (Supreme Court, 1964)
WMCA, Inc. v. Lomenzo
382 U.S. 4 (Supreme Court, 1965)
Harrison v. Schaefer
383 U.S. 269 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Kilgarlin v. Martin
252 F. Supp. 404 (S.D. Texas, 1966)
Honeywood v. Rockefeller
214 F. Supp. 897 (E.D. New York, 1963)
Stout v. Bottorff
249 F. Supp. 488 (S.D. Indiana, 1965)
Drum v. Seawell
249 F. Supp. 877 (M.D. North Carolina, 1965)
Dungan v. Sawyer
253 F. Supp. 352 (D. Nevada, 1966)
Toombs v. Fortson
241 F. Supp. 65 (N.D. Georgia, 1965)
Baker v. Clement
247 F. Supp. 886 (M.D. Tennessee, 1965)
Yancey v. Faubus
251 F. Supp. 998 (E.D. Arkansas, 1965)
Bush v. Martin
251 F. Supp. 484 (S.D. Texas, 1966)
Meeks v. Avery
251 F. Supp. 245 (D. Kansas, 1966)
WMCA, Inc. v. Lomenzo
238 F. Supp. 916 (S.D. New York, 1965)
Preisler v. Hearnes
362 S.W.2d 552 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1962)
Nolan v. Rhodes
251 F. Supp. 584 (S.D. Ohio, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
222 A.2d 134, 92 N.J. Super. 45, 1966 N.J. Super. LEXIS 477, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-falcey-njsuperctappdiv-1966.