Legislature v. Reinecke

516 P.2d 6, 10 Cal. 3d 396, 110 Cal. Rptr. 718, 1973 Cal. LEXIS 162
California Supreme Court·Decided November 28, 1973·No. Docket Nos. Sac. 7917, 7919, 7923·Published·Cited by 50 cases

Opinion

Opinion

WRIGHT, C. J.

In these mandate proceedings we are called upon to resolve the impasse created by the continuing failure of the Legislature to pass legislative and congressional reapportionment bills acceptable to the Governor. 1

*400 Our first opinion herein was filed on January 18, 1972, when we adopted temporary apportionment plans for the 1972 elections. We concluded that the congressional districts set forth in Assembly Bill No. 16, 1971 First Extraordinary Session, and the existing statutes apportioning the Legislature should be in effect for the 1972 elections. We retained jurisdiction to draft new reapportionment plans for the elections of 1974 through 1980 in the event the Legislature did not enact valid legislative and congressional reapportionment statutes by the close of its 1972 regular session. (Legislature v. Reinecke (1972) 6 Cal.3d 595, 603-604 [99 Cal.Rptr. 481, 492 P.2d 385].)

On May 10, 1972, at the request of the Senate of the State of California, we postponed the time for further court action, stating that “we will not exercise our retained jurisdiction herein if the Legislature, in 1972, enacts valid legislative and congressional reapportionment, statutes either during its current regular session or at a special session called for that purpose.” (Legislature v. Reinecke (1972) 7 Cal.3d 92, 93 [101 Cal.Rptr. 552, 496 P.2d 464].)

The Legislature did not enact reapportionment statutes in 1972 and we were therefore again faced with the necessity of judicial action. On March 23, 1973, we announced our intention to appoint three Special Masters to hold public hearings to permit the presentation of evidence and argument with respect to the possible criteria of reapportionment and of proposed plans to carry out such criteria, to recommend to the court reapportionment plans for possible adoption, and to set forth the criteria underlying the recommended plans and the reasons for the recommendations. We made clear, however, that the Legislature was not foreclosed from enacting reapportionment statutes if it could succeed in doing so. We stated that “If at any time during the proceedings contemplated by this order valid congressional and legislative reapportionment measures are enacted the court will entertain an application to dismiss these proceedings.” (Legislature v. Reinecke (1973) 9 Cal.3d 166, 168 [107 Cal.Rptr. 18, 507 P.2d 626].)

*401 On May 1, 1973, we appointed the Honorable Martin J. Coughlin, retired Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division One, the Honorable Harold F. Collins, retired Judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, and the Honorable Alvin E. Weinberger, retired Judge of the Superior Court of the City and County of San Francisco, as Special Masters, and we designated Justice Coughlin as Presiding Master. In accord with our order of March 23, 1973, we directed the Masters to present their recommendations to the court not later than August 31, 1973.

The Masters immediately undertook the task assigned to them, and on August 31 they filed their Report and Recommendations (hereinafter Report) with the court. During the course of the Masters’ hearings the Legislature passed, but the Governor vetoed, Senate Bill 195, which contained congressional and legislative reapportionment plans. Since the Legislature has recessed for the year, it is now clear that the court has no alternative but to order its own reapportionment plans into effect.

With minor exceptions in senate district numbering (see fn. 2, infra), we accept and adopt the reapportionment plans recommended to us by the Special Masters. They are set forth in Appendix A to the Report, which, as corrected by the Masters for clerical errors, is on file with the clerk of the court. In the Report the Masters reviewed the evidence and arguments of the parties and other interested persons presented to them. They listed the criteria they deemed appropriate to govern reapportionment and the reasons underlying the selection of those criteria. They explained in detail why they could not recommend to the court any of the reapportionment plans presented to them and therefore concluded that they should formulate their own plans in accordance with the recommended criteria. Finally they described the method by which they drafted their plans, set forth to the extent feasible specific reasons underlying specific choices of district lines, and translated their conclusions into legal descriptions of legislative and congressional districts. The Report speaks for itself and follows as an appendix to this opinion. Accordingly, we will attempt to avoid as much as possible merely repeating what it contains.

After the Report was presented to the court, various parties and amici curiae filed briefs, and numerous cities, counties, groups, organizations, and individuals sent communications to the court objecting to or supporting the Masters’ plans in whole or in part. Although some objection has been voiced to the Masters’ conclusion that they should formulate their own reapportionment plans for recommendation to the court, we are fully persuaded by their Report (pp. 414-418, infra) that they correctly so con- *402 eluded. In so stating we wish to make clear that we in no way question the motives of the Legislature or any of its members in passing Senate Bill 195. We record only our agreement with the Masters that there are shortcomings in the reapportionment plans contained in that bill that preclude our adoption of them as court plans. We therefore now turn to a review of the Masters’ plans.

The Masters adopted seven criteria which they used in formulating their plans. (Report, pp. 410-414, infra.) They may be summarized as follows: (1) The districts in each plan should be equal in population, with strict equality in the case of congressional districts and reasonable equality in the case of legislative districts. (2) The territory included within a district should be contiguous and compact. (3) Insofar as practical counties and cities should be maintained intact. (4) Insofar as possible the integrity of the state’s basic geographical regions should be preserved. (5) The community of interests of the population of an area should be considered in determining whether the area should be included within or excluded from a proposed district so that all of the citizens of the district may be represented reasonably, fairly and effectively. (6) State senatorial districts should be formed by combining adjacent assembly districts, and, to the degree practicable, assembly district boundaries should be used as congressional district boundaries. (7) The basis for reapportionment should be the 1970 census, and in counties where census tracts exist, such tracts should be used as the basic unit for district formation.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Legislature v. Reinecke, 516 P.2d 6, 10 Cal. 3d 396, 110 Cal. Rptr. 718, 1973 Cal. LEXIS 162 (Cal. 1973).

516 P.2d 6 (Legislature v. Reinecke) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Vandermost v. Bowen
269 P.3d 446 (California Supreme Court, 2012)
Nadler v. Schwarzenegger
41 Cal. Rptr. 3d 92 (California Court of Appeal, 2006)
Cano v. Davis
211 F. Supp. 2d 1208 (C.D. California, 2002)
Smith v. Clark
189 F. Supp. 2d 548 (S.D. Mississippi, 2002)
No.
Colorado Attorney General Reports, 2001
DeWitt v. Wilson
856 F. Supp. 1409 (E.D. California, 1994)
Brooks v. Hobbie
631 So. 2d 883 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1993)
Gaona v. Anderson
989 F.2d 299 (Ninth Circuit, 1993)
Wilson v. Eu
823 P.2d 545 (California Supreme Court, 1992)
Common Cause v. Board of Supervisors
777 P.2d 610 (California Supreme Court, 1989)
Untitled California Attorney General Opinion
California Attorney General Reports, 1988
Badham v. March Fong Eu
694 F. Supp. 664 (N.D. California, 1988)
Galster v. Woods
173 Cal. App. 3d 529 (California Court of Appeal, 1985)
State v. Greenwell
Montana Supreme Court, 1983
Badham v. United States District Court
721 F.2d 1170 (Ninth Circuit, 1983)
Legislature v. Deukmejian
669 P.2d 17 (California Supreme Court, 1983)
Kentopp v. Anchorage
652 P.2d 453 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1982)