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6 

ARIZONA STATE LEGISLATURE v. ARIZONA 
INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMM’N
 
Opinion of the Court 

electorate share lawmaking power under Arizona’s system
of government.” (internal quotation marks omitted)).  The 
initiative, housed under the article of the Arizona Consti­
tution  concerning  the  “Legislative  Department”  and  the 
section  defining  the  State’s  “legislative  authority,”  re­
serves  for  the  people  “the  power  to  propose  laws  and 
amendments  to  the  constitution.”    Art. IV,  pt.  1,  §1.    The 
Arizona Constitution further states that “[a]ny law which
may be enacted by the Legislature under this Constitution
may  be  enacted  by  the  people  under  the  Initiative.” 
Art. XXII,  §14.    Accordingly,  “[g]eneral  references  to  the
power  of  the  ‘legislature’ ”  in  the  Arizona  Constitution
“include the people’s right (specified in Article IV, part 1)
to  bypass  their  elected  representatives  and  make  laws 
directly through the initiative.”  Leshy xxii. 

C 
Proposition  106,  vesting  redistricting  authority  in  the
AIRC, was  adopted by  citizen initiative in 2000 against a 
“background of recurring redistricting turmoil” in Arizona.
Cain,  Redistricting  Commissions:  A  Better  Political  Buf- 
fer? 121 Yale L. J. 1808, 1831 (2012).  Redistricting plans
adopted by the Arizona Legislature sparked controversy in
every  redistricting  cycle  since  the  1970’s,  and  several  of 
those  plans  were  rejected  by  a  federal  court  or  refused 
preclearance  by  the  Department  of  Justice  under  the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965.  See id., at 1830–1832.4 

—————— 

4 From Arizona’s admission to the Union in 1912 to 1940, no congres­
sional  districting  occurred  because  Arizona  had  only  one  Member  of
Congress.    K.  Martis,  The  Historical  Atlas  of  United  States  Congres­
sional  Districts,  1789–1983,  p. 3  (1982)  (Table  1).    Court-ordered 
congressional  districting  plans  were  in  place  from  1966  to  1970,  and
from  1982  through  2000.    See  Klahr  v.  Williams,  313  F. Supp.  148 
(Ariz.  1970);  Goddard  v.  Babbitt,  536  F. Supp.  538  (Ariz.  1982);  Arizo-
nans  for  Fair  Representation  v.  Symington,  828  F. Supp.  684  (Ariz.
1992);  Norrander  &  Wendland,  Redistricting  in  Arizona,  in  Reappor­
tionment  and  Redistricting  in  the  West  177,  178–179  (G.  Moncrief  ed.