The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-11-14
Gerrymandering Ended.

|
The Supreme court rendered a decision,
on Thursday, that will put quietus upon
all future attemps to gerrymander the
legislative districts of this state. The
court decided that the only constitutional
way to elect Assemblymen is by counties.
The ground on which the decision is based
| is the provision in the state constitution
that Assemblymen shall be elected by
the legal voters of the county"
The opinion was by Judge Depue, but
the other Judges, Reed and Lippincot, sit
ting with him as a branch of the Supreme
court, concurred in it. The opinion was
oral, and written one will be filed later.
The decision makes absolute a rule
against County Clerk Wrightson and the
municipal and township clerks of Essex,
compelling hereafter the printing of the
names of all of the candidates of one party
upon general county ticket.
The decision can have no effect upon
the Assembly just elected. 1t was made
upon a rule to show cause why manda-
mus should not issue to the election Off
GERS in Essex county to advertise, ETC., all
future elections of Assemblymen to be
| held by the county vote. Such maDda
mus, even when issued, can have no effect
upon an election that has taken place.
But it will control future elections in
Essex county, No other county is legally
involved in the judgment even to this ex-
tent.
But the decision is judicial opinion
upon which, if legal proceedings be taken
throughout the State, judgment would
,, hereafter be rendered which will carry
out the Cpl MON.
The Judge said:
1.-THE issue presented is, whether, under
the government established by the consti
tuition, the members of the General
Assembly apportioned among the several
counties may be elected otherwise than
by the qualified voters of the county at
large.
''The constitutional provisions under
consideration are contained in Art. 4, Sec
l, 2 and 3, under the title of Legislature,
and Art. 2 under the title of Right of Suf-
frage. Section provides that the Gen
eral Assembly shall be composed of mem
bers annually elected by the legal voters
of the counties respectively" The opinion
then goes on to discuss the intent of this
expression and continues:
after careful examination, and the
most attentive consideration of the impor-
tant questions presented IN this case, in
my judgment the election of members of
Assembly in Assembly districts is plain
departure from the method of electing
these representatives prescribed by the
constitution. Instead of the eleven men,
bers apportioned to the county being
elected by the legal voters of the county,
one member is elected in each Assembly
district by the legal voters of that district
arbitrarily created by the Legislature. In
the construction of statutes 1t is cardinal
rule which applies as well to constitu-
tional provisions, that when the law is in
I the affirmative that thing shall be done
by certain persons or in a certain manner,
this affirmative matter contains negative
that it shall not be done by other persons
or in other manner. Where the constitu-
tion prescribes the manner in which an
officer shall be appointed or elected, the
constitutional prescription is exclusive,
and it is not competent for the Legislature
to provide any other mode of obtaining or
holding Office.
"The election of one member in one
Assembly district and one member in an
other district, and so on through the
eleven districts into which the county is
divided, is not the election of the men,
bers of the General Assembly apportioned
among the counties by the legal voters of
the county. The constituency devised by
the system of Assembly districts is an
other and different constituency from
that prescribed by the constitution, and
the qualified voters of the county are re-
stricted in the exercise of the right of suf-
frage as fully as is guaranteed to them by
the consultation. 1t seems to me that 1t
cannot be affirmed on any defensible
ground that member of Assembly chosen
by the voters of one election district with
in the county is, in the words OF the con-
stitution, elected by the legal voters of the
county"
The opinion concludes as follows:
1.-THE constitution contains the perma-
nent will of the people 1t is paramount
to the power of the Legislature and can be
revoked or altered only by the power
which created il. Popular government
can only be maintained by UNFOLDING the
constitution at all times and on all occa-
sions, as it was when it came from the
hands of the people, by whose fiat 1t was
established as the fundamental articles of
government, to abide until altered by the
authority which created it.
! "No one can examine the legislation on
this subject from 1871 TO the present time
and contemplate the results without real
zing the evils which have been fostered
under this system. Relief from these
wrongs through the ballot box cannot be
assured. The majority in the Legislature
is elected by minority of the legal voters
of the State. Precedent has been followed,
by retaliation, to be repeated from time to
time as supremacy in the Legislature has
passed from one party to the other For
this condition of affairs the only remedy
] is return to constitutional methods. II
| it be that the election of the General
Assembly in districts furnishes a more
perfect system of popular representation
in the popular branch of the Legislature,
the change devolves upon the people who
made and who alone can alter this consti-
tutional method of electing these repre-
sentatiyes."