Yancey v. Faubus

238 F. Supp. 290, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6391
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 28, 1965
DocketLR-64-C-96
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 238 F. Supp. 290 (Yancey v. Faubus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yancey v. Faubus, 238 F. Supp. 290, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6391 (E.D. Ark. 1965).

Opinion

HENLEY, Chief District Judge.

On June 15, 1964, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a series of decisions, hereinafter referred to as the Keapportionment Cases, holding in substance that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States requires that the membership of each house of a bicameral State legislature be apportioned so that, as nearly as practicable, each member of the respective houses represents the same number of people. Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506; W.M.C.A., Inc. v. Lonenzo, 377 U.S. 633, 84 S.Ct. 1418, 12 L.Ed.2d 568; Maryland Committee For Fair Representation v. Tawes, 377 U.S. 656, 84 S.Ct. 1429, 12 L.Ed.2d 595; Davis v. Mann, 377 U.S. 678, 84 S.Ct. 1441, 12 L.Ed.2d 609; Roman v. Sincock, 377 U.S. 695, 84 S.Ct. 1449, 12 L.Ed.2d 620; Lucas v. Forty-Fourth Colorado General Assembly, 377 U.S. 713, 84 S.Ct. 1459, 12 L.Ed.2d 632. Those decisions were foreshadowed by Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663, decided In 1962, holding that the federal courts have jurisdiction with respect to controversies relating to State legislative apportionment.

On July 15, 1964, plaintiff herein, John Yancey, a citizen and qualified elector of Pulaski County, Arkansas, the State’s most populous county, commenced this action against the Governor of Arkansas, the Arkansas Secretary of State, and the Arkansas Attorney General, attacking the existing apportionment of the membership of both houses of the Arkansas Legislature which is currently meeting in its 65th biennial session. The defendants collectively comprise the Board of Apportionment created by section 1 of Amendment 45 to the 1874 Constitution of Arkansas for the purpose of making decennial reapportionments of both the Arkansas Senate and House of Representatives in the manner prescribed by sections 2 and 3 of the Amendment.

The complaint, as amended, alleges in substance that the scheme of apportionment and reapportionment prescribed by Amendment 45 does not meet the standard laid down by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Reapportionment Cases, supra, and is invalid, and that for the same reason the present apportionment of the membership of the Legislature is invalid. 1 The prayer of the complaint is that sections 2 and 3 of the Amendment, hereinafter abstracted, be declared unconstitutional, and that the Board be required by this Court to effect a constitutional reapportionment of both the House and the Senate.

In its answer the Board denies that sections 2 and 3 of the Amendment are unconstitutional, and prays that the complaint, as amended, be dismissed.

Since the complaint challenged the constitutionality of a State constitutional provision and prayed for an injunction against the continued enforcement of that provision, a statutory court of three judges was convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 2281, 2284, and the case has been submitted to that Court.

Federal subject matter jurisdiction is not questioned and has been established. It has been admitted or stipulated that plaintiff has standing to maintain the action, that the defendants constitute the Board of Apportionment to which reference has been made, and that the validity of the existing apportionment of the membership of the Arkansas Legislature is to be determined by reference to the United States Census for 1960. The materials before the Court include maps, agreed to be accurate, on which are depicted the seventy-five counties of the State, the population of each County according to the 1960 census, the twenty-six senatorial districts into which the State is subdivided, the number of representatives which each County has in the *292 House, and the number of senators which each senatorial district has in the Senate. Other facts relevant to decision are such that judicial notice may be taken of their existence.

Prior to hearing, the defendants filed a motion for a stay of the instant proceedings for the purpose of permitting reapportionment litigation in the State courts to be initiated and prosecuted to conclusion. That motion was pending when a pre-trial conference was held before the single judge to whose docket the case fell originally, and the pre-trial conference order provided that the motion for a stay and the merits of the case would be considered at a single hearing which was set for January 7, 1965.

On January 6, 1965, Hon. Clark Kinney, a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from St. Francis County, commenced a suit against the Board in the Chancery Court of Pulaski County seeking to determine the present status of the Board and seeking to require it to make a constitutional reapportionment of the Legislature.

The hearing in this ease was held on January 7. The plaintiff appeared in person and by counsel; the Board appeared by the Attorney General. At the commencement of the hearing the Board renewed its motion to stay on the basis of the Kinney litigation which has been mentioned. Plaintiff resisted the motion.

The proceedings at the hearing consisted of steps necessary to perfect the record before the Court and of oral arguments both on the motion to stay and on the merits. At the conclusion of the hearing both the motion and the merits were taken under advisement.

So far as the motion to stay is concerned, the Court does not see that any useful purpose would be served by withholding decision at this time on the basic federal question of whether the existing scheme of apportionment and the existing apportionment of the membership of the Arkansas Legislature are constitutionally valid. On the contrary, the Court is convinced that it is in the best interest of all concerned for this Court to adjudicate that question now. Whether the Court should go beyond that adjudication will be discussed in connection with the merits of the case. The motion for a stay of proceedings, as such, will be denied.

The Arkansas Legislature consists of a House of Representatives of 100 members, and a Senate of 35 members. At least in practice, each Representative and each Senator has one vote in his respective House. All of the Constitutions of Arkansas 2 have provided for periodic reapportionments of the Legislature on the basis of population. The responsibility for reapportionment was originally placed upon the Legislature itself, but in 1936 the voters of Arkansas adopted Amendment 23 which created a Board of Apportionment and placed in its hands the duty of reapportioning both Houses of the Legislature following each federal census, but with an initial reapportionment to be made in 1937. Acting under Amendment 23 the Board made its 1937 reapportionment and also reapportioned in 1941 and 1951. In 1956 Amendment 23 was superseded by Amendment 45 here in controversy.

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Baker v. Carr
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Yancey v. Faubus
251 F. Supp. 998 (E.D. Arkansas, 1965)
Faubus v. Kinney
389 S.W.2d 887 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
238 F. Supp. 290, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6391, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yancey-v-faubus-ared-1965.