People Ex Rel. Engle v. Kerner

210 N.E.2d 165, 33 Ill. 2d 11, 1965 Ill. LEXIS 194
Illinois Supreme Court·Decided September 9, 1965·No. 38848·Published·Cited by 25 cases

Opinion

Mr. Justice Underwood

delivered the opinion of the court:

The 74th General Assembly, recently adjourned sine die, unfortunately failed in its task of senatorial reapportionment. It therefore becomes necessary for this court, pursuant to our retention of jurisdiction herein, (People ex rel. Engle v. Kerner, 32 Ill.2d 212) to frame such affirmative relief as is necessary to insure a constitutionally valid election of Illinois senators in 1966.

By our order of June 24, 1965, we directed the parties hereto to submit suggestions for a judicially constructed senatorial reapportionment plan. Pursuant thereto widely divergent proposals were filed. Subsequently, Chief Judge Campbell of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, which also had jurisdiction of the same problem, (see Scott v. Germano, 381 U.S. 407, 14 L. ed. 2d 477, 85 S. Ct. 1525) with our knowledge and approval undertook pretrial conferences in an attempt to promote agreement upon the unresolved questions. By order dated July 29, 1965, we appointed Deans Russell N. Sullivan of the University of Illinois College of Law, John Ritchie of the Northwestern University School of Law, and Phil C. Neal of the University of Chicago Law School as amici curiae for the purpose of preparing and submitting for our approval a reapportionment plan, and simultaneously allowed the opposing parties ■ a final opportunity to resolve existing senatorial reapportionment disputes and submit to this court an equitable and constitutionally valid proposal. Although complete agreement was not reached, several proposed reapportionment plans, together with supporting population data, have been submitted and examined by both this court and the Federal district court. From these proposed plans a provisional reapportionment scheme, based principally upon the areas of preliminary agreement, has been prepared.

We believe this plan to be just, equitable and constitutionally valid, representing a fair compromise between the divergent proposals originally submitted by the parties. Accordingly, we, together with the Federal district court, on August 25, 1965, indicated our approval of such plan. As a consequence, all Illinois senators shall be elected in 1966 from districts described by the provisional plan, a copy of which is attached as an appendix hereto, including legal descriptions and maps.

The plan adopted clearly complies with the “one man-one vote” principle, for the largest district, No. 58, contains (based upon i960 census statistics) 187,247 inhabitants, thereby deviating from the hypothetical perfectly populated district or “norm” (173,813) by only 7.7%. The smallest district, No. 44, contains 161,586 people and deviates from the norm by 7.0%. It is well settled that mathematical nicety is not constitutionally required in devising reapportionment schemes, and that districts not substantially diluting the equal-population principle are valid. (Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 12 L. ed. 2d 506, 84 S. Ct. 1362.) We believe the minor deviations from the population norm, made necessary by a desire to preserve the integrity of existing political subdivisions, are embraced within constitutionally permissible limits. We also recognize that this provisional plan may be somewhat less than ideal in terms of compactness and contiguity, but, under existing circumstances, we believe that the present plan represents a reasonable resolution of the problems involved.

We have previously indicated by our order of July 29, 1965, that all 58 senatorial seats are to be filled in the 1966 election. This may properly be done, as existing de facto office holders have no vested tenure in office as such. Hughes v. WMCA, Inc., 379 U.S. 694, 85 S. Ct. 713 (see factual statement in dissenting opinion) ; Davis v. Mann, 238 F. Supp. 458, 460 (E. D. Va.), affirmed 379 U.S. 694, 85 S. Ct. 713; Parsons v. Buckley, 379 U.S. 359, 13 L. ed. 2d 352, 85 S. Ct. 503.

The Illinois constitution (art. IV, sec. 6) provides for staggering the terms of senators. We have held this provision to be valid (People ex rel. Engle v. Kerner, 32 Ill.2d 212,) and in any legislatively devised reapportionment scheme, the principle would of course be mandatory. However, the plan adopted here is clearly provisional and temporary in nature, made necessary only by legislative nonfeasance. To judicially provide for staggered terms in a temporary redistricting scheme would unduly and unnecessarily encroach upon the legislative domain. We hold, therefore, that all 58 senators shall be elected in 1966 and thereafter for identical four-year terms until such time as 1970 census figures become available for legislative action.

Reapportionment is a legislative responsibility, and certain Illinois constitutional provisions have been held incompatable with Federal constitutional requirements. The desirability of a new constitutional amendment is apparent and we commend this subject to the consideration of -the General Assembly.

Since a provisional plan has been adopted, the services • of amici curiae appointed by order of July 29, 1965, are no longer necessary. They are accordingly hereby discharged, with instructions to present to the clerk of this court statements of reasonable expenses, if any, heretofore incurred by them as amici. We express our appreciation to Deans Sullivan, Ritchie, and Neal, and commend their willingness to serve this court and the public in these sensitive and troublesome areas of legislative reapportionment.

Provisional Senatorial Reapportionment adopted.

APPENDIX

Population Data for Cook County Senate Districts Outside the City of Chicago

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Legal Descriptions for Cook County Senate Districts Outside the City of Chicago

District 1: New Trier Township, Evanston Township, that- part of Northfield Township lying to the south and east of a line described as follows: beginning at the point where Voltz Road extended intercepts the eastern township boundary proceed west along the center of Voltz Road to the center of the intersection with the Chicago and North Western Railway Company’s Valley-to-Norma freight line, then in a southerly and westerly direction along said freight line to the point where it intercepts the southern township boundary, that part of Niles Township lying north of Dempster Street and east of Crawford Avenue, all in Cook County.

District 2: The townships of Leyden, Norwood Park, River Forest, and that part of Oak Park Township lying north of Madison Street, all in Cook County.

District 3: The townships of Barrington, Elk Grove, Hanover, Palatine, Shaumberg,.

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People Ex Rel. Engle v. Kerner, 210 N.E.2d 165, 33 Ill. 2d 11, 1965 Ill. LEXIS 194 (Ill. 1965).

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