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Legislature v. Deukmejian - 34 Cal.3d 658 - Thu, 09/15/1983 | California Supreme Court Resources
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Citation 34 Cal.3d 658
Legislature v. Deukmejian (1983) 34 Cal.3d 658 , 194 Cal.Rptr. 781; 669 P.2d 17
[S. F. No. 24589.
September 15, 1983.]
[S. F. Nos. 24596.
Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, Walter R. Allan, Vaughn R. Walker, Frederick K. Lowell and Kevin M. Fong for Real Parties in Interest. [34 Cal.3d 663]
Petitioners seek mandamus to restrain respondents, all of whom have official duties in the conduct and/or certification of elections in California, [34 Cal.3d 664] from expending any public funds or otherwise acting to carry out a special election proclaimed by respondent Governor on July 18, 1983, to be conducted on December 13, 1983, fn. 3 for the purpose of submitting to the voters the initiative fn. 4 measure of which the real parties in interest are proponents. The initiative, if adopted, would realign the Assembly, Senate and congressional districts of California and repeal statutes enacted by the Legislature during the 1983-1984 First Extraordinary Session. fn. 5
The principal claim of both the legislative and congressional petitioners is that the initiative measure is invalid because it represents an attempt to redistrict more than once in a decennial period -- an attempt which both sets of petitioners say is barred by article XXI of the California Constitution, and which congressional petitioners also oppose on the basis that it would [34 Cal.3d 665] violate article I, section 2, of the United States Constitution, fn. 6 and the Permanent Reapportionment Act (2 U.S.C. § 2a). fn. 7
Legislative and congressional petitioners join also in challenging the initiative on the ground that the districts it seeks to create violate, in the case of the congressional districts, the "equal representation" standard (Karcher v. Daggett (1983) ___ U.S. ___ [77 L.Ed.2d 133, 103 S.Ct. 2633]), and as to both types of districts the equal protection clauses of both the state and federal Constitutions. (U.S. Const., 14th Amend.; art. I, § 7; Reynolds v. Sims (1964) 377 U.S. 533 [12 L.Ed.2d 506, 84 S.Ct. 1362]; Baker v. Carr (1962) 369 U.S. 186 [7 L.Ed.2d 663, 82 S.Ct. 691]; Assembly v. Deukmejian (1982) 30 Cal.3d 638 [180 Cal.Rptr. 297, 639 P.2d 939].) The legislative petitioners argue also that the initiative unnecessarily disenfranchises certain voters, thus denying them due process and equal protection of the laws; that it fails to provide for redistricting by the Legislature in 1991 as mandated by article XXI; and that it cannot be understood by the voters because it is not accompanied by maps or other descriptive material adequate to permit them to visualize and comprehend the new districts.
We issued an alternative writ of mandate to consider the issues thus raised. Mandamus is an appropriate remedy. (Assembly v. Deukmejian, supra, 30 Cal.3d 638, 646.)
[1] "As we have frequently observed, it is usually more appropriate to review constitutional and other challenges to ballot propositions or initiative measures after an election rather than to disrupt the electoral process by preventing the exercise of the people's franchise, in the absence of some clear showing of invalidity. [Citations.]" (Brosnahan v. Eu (1982) 31 Cal.3d 1, 4 [181 Cal.Rptr. 100, 641 P.2d 200].) That principle is a salutary one, and where appropriate we adhere to it. However, where the requisite [34 Cal.3d 666] showing of invalidity has been made, departure from the general rule is compelled.
In this case both state and local election officials -- while not taking any position on the substantive resolution of the case -- have urged the court to decide the matter before the election because of what they consider to be the dire consequences of delay. They point, in part, to the high costs -- estimated at $15 million -- which both state and local governments will be required to absorb if this special election is allowed to proceed, and suggest that if the initiative is in fact invalid this expenditure will be for naught. And they point -- most significantly, in our view -- to the very substantial problems for election officials, candidates, and supporters that would exist if our consideration of this matter were deferred beyond December. Indeed, the Secretary of State advises us that implementation of changes in district boundaries so close to the time at which procedures preliminary to the conduct of the June 1984 primary election must be undertaken would make the orderly conduct of that election impossible. fn. 8 Similar considerations underlay this court's decision to intervene prior to the election on the challenged reapportionment referenda in Assembly v. Deukmejian, supra, 30 Cal.3d 638.
Another and most formidable argument advanced by petitioners against the validity of the initiative is that the Legislature has already completed the constitutional duty of establishing district boundaries for this decennial period. This argument, if correct, would constitute an absolute bar to a further redistricting prior to the 1990 decennial census, whether by initiative or legislative action. As Justice Mosk observed in his separate opinion in Brosnahan v. Eu, supra, 31 Cal.3d 1, 6: "[E]lection officials have been ordered not to place initiative and referendum proposals on the ballot on the ground that the electorate did not have the power to enact them since they were not legislative in character [citations], the subject matter was not [34 Cal.3d 667] a municipal affair [citations], or the proposal amounted to a revision of the Constitution rather than an amendment thereto. [Citation.]" Here, as in those cases, the challenge goes to the power of the electorate to adopt the proposal in the first instance. This challenge does not require even a cursory examination of the substance of the initiative itself. The question raised is, in a sense, jurisdictional.
The 1981 statutes were rejected by the voters at the June 1982 referenda election. At the First Extraordinary Session of 1982-1983, convened in December 1982, the Legislature enacted chapter 6, establishing new boundaries for congressional districts, and chapter 8, doing the same for Senate and Assembly districts. Both chapters were signed by then Governor Brown on January 2, 1983. Chapter 8 (legislative districts) became effective immediately [34 Cal.3d 668] as an urgency statute, fn. 9 and chapter 6 (congressional districts) will go into effect on October 17, 1983, the 91st day after the July 19, 1983, adjournment of the extraordinary session. (Art. IV, § 8, subd. (c).)
[2] As adopted in 1879, article IV, section 6 of the California Constitution provided: "[t]he census taken under the direction of the Congress of the United States, in the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty, and every ten years thereafter, shall be the basis of fixing and adjusting the legislative districts; and the Legislature shall, at its first session after each census, adjust such districts and re-apportion the representation so as to preserve them as near equal in population as may be." To the extent that constitutional history offers any basis for ascertaining the intent of the framers of the Constitution of 1879, it supports our conclusion that the drafters intended thereby that the state be redistricted immediately after each decennial census and not again thereafter until the next census. This court has so held repeatedly. [34 Cal.3d 669]
In Wheeler v. Herbert the court supported its decision by reference to decisions of the courts of several other states which had reached similar conclusions in attempting to harmonize constitutional limitations on redistricting with the power to create or modify boundaries of political subdivisions. (See People v. Board of Sup'rs. (1895) 147 N.Y. 1 [41 N.E. 563]; Lanning v. Carpenter (1859) 20 N.Y. 447; Stone v. Charlestown (1873) 114 Mass. 214, 226-227; Warren v. Mayor (1854) 68 Mass. (2 Gray) 84, 101; Opinion of Justices (1839) 60 Mass. (6 Cush.) 578; fn. 10 Smith v. Saginaw (1890) 81 Mich. (23 & 24 Fuller) 123 [45 N.W. 964]; Bay County v. Bullock (1883) 51 Mich. (15 & 16 Chaney) 544 [16 N.W. 896]; People ex rel. Attorney General v. Holihan (1874) 29 Mich. (7 & 8 Post) 116; State ex rel. Evans v. Dudley (1853) 1 Ohio St. 437; State v. Stevens (1901) 112 [34 Cal.3d 670] Wis. 170 [88 N.W. 48]; Wade v. Richmond (1868) 18 Grat. (Va.) 583, 608-620; Commissioners v. Ballard (1873) 69 N.C. 18.)
In Dowell v. McLees (1926) 199 Cal. 144 [248 P. 511], this court reconfirmed the once-a-decade principle as a matter of constitutional interpretation. There, pursuant to the Consolidation Act of 1913 (Stats. 1913, ch. 311, § 1, p. 577), San Diego and East San Diego had been consolidated in 1923. Thereafter, in 1925, additional territory was annexed to San Diego pursuant to the Annexation Act (Stats. 1913, ch. 312, § 9, p. 594). The 79th and 80th Assembly Districts then encompassed respectively the City of San Diego and the remainder of the county. This court rejected a claim that the consolidation and annexation had altered the boundaries of the 79th Assembly District. The court held, "following the reasoning and conclusions in Wheeler v. Herbert" (199 Cal. at p. 147): "In fixing and readjusting the boundaries of assembly districts the legislature acts pursuant to the provisions of section 6 of article IV of the constitution. Under that section, which is mandatory and prohibitory, the power to form legislative districts can be exercised but once during the period between one United States [34 Cal.3d 671] census and the succeeding one (Wheeler v. Herbert, 152 Cal. 224), and by the terms of the section, until the legislative power is exercised as therein provided, assemblymen shall be elected by the districts as theretofore established." (Id., at p. 146, italics added.)
More recently, in Yorty v. Anderson (1963) 60 Cal.2d 312 [33 Cal.Rptr. 97, 384 P.2d 417], this court again recognized the prohibition, announced in Wheeler and Dowell, against successive district changes in the same inter-census period. Without questioning the continued validity of the general once-a-decade constitutional principle, we went on to explain that that rule did not preclude the Legislature from enacting a second statute if the first one had been invalidated by judicial decision or nullified by referendum. (60 Cal.2d at pp. 316-317.) fn. 11 And in our later decisions, we have uniformly assumed that only one valid plan for legislative and congressional districts may be implemented in a decennial census period. (See Legislature v. Reinecke (1972) 6 Cal.3d 595, 604 [99 Cal.Rptr. 481, 492 P.2d 385], 7 Cal.3d 92, 93 [101 Cal.Rptr. 552, 496 P.2d 464]; Assembly v. Deukmejian, supra, 30 Cal.3d 638, 671, 676; id., p. 692 (dis. opn. of Richardson, J.).) fn. 12
On June 3, 1980, article XXI replaced former article IV, section 6. It provides: [34 Cal.3d 672]
Article XXI thus expressly includes congressional districts among those subject to the requirement of adjustment following each decennial federal census. [3] Although rephrased, article XXI perpetuates the command of article IV, section 6, by providing that the Legislature "shall adjust the boundary lines" of the affected districts in the year following each federal census. Therefore, absent evidence that the people intended a different interpretation, it must be inferred that in the drafting and adopting of article XXI, the prior judicial interpretation of that language was considered and a similar interpretation of that article was intended. (In re Jeanice D. (1980) 28 Cal.3d 210, 216 [168 Cal.Rptr. 455, 617 P.2d 1087]; Perry v. Jordan (1949) 34 Cal.2d 87, 93 [207 P.2d 47].)
[4] The Legislative Analyst's explanation of the measure and the arguments for and against it, set forth in the California Ballot Pamphlet for the Primary Election on June 3, 1980, at which time article XXI was [34 Cal.3d 673] adopted, reveal no such contrary intent or understanding. fn. 14 [5] "It is a well-recognized rule of construction that after the courts have construed the meaning of any particular word, or expression, and the legislature subsequently undertakes to use these exact words in the same connection, the presumption is almost irresistible that it used them in the precise and technical sense which had been placed upon them by the courts." (City of Long Beach v. Payne (1935) 3 Cal.2d 184, 191 [44 P.2d 305].) The presumption is equally applicable to measures adopted by popular vote. (Perry v. Jordan, supra, 34 Cal.2d 87, 93.)
Assuming, but not deciding, that redistricting by initiative is permissible, we find the first proposition puzzling inasmuch as the reserved power to enact statutes by initiative is a legislative power, one that would otherwise reside in the Legislature. It has heretofore been considered to be no greater with respect to the nature and attributes of the statutes that may be enacted than that of the Legislature. Any doubt in this regard was conclusively [34 Cal.3d 674] dispelled by Wallace v. Zinman (1927) 200 Cal. 585 [254 P. 946, 62 A.L.R. 1341], in which it was claimed that an initiative statute was not invalid for failure to conform to the "single-subject rule" applicable to legislative enactments. Noting that the Constitution provided, as it does now in article I, section 26, that "[t]he provisions of this Constitution are mandatory and prohibitory, unless by express words they are declared to be otherwise," this court said: "It has been urged, however, that an initiative measure in its effect is a constitutional amendment, and as constitutional amendments need not conform to the provision of the constitution quoted above, this statute need not so conform to it. We are unable to accord any weight whatsoever to this contention. We do not recognize an initiative measure as having any greater strength or dignity than attaches to any other legislation. Throughout section 1 of article IV of the constitution a distinct line of demarcation is kept between a law or an act and a constitutional amendment. It is only another system added to our plan of state government by a permissive amendment to the constitution, but it was at no time intended that such permissive legislation by direct vote should override the other safeguards of the constitution. If an amendment of the constitution were intended, the provision requires steps to be taken that will apprise the voters thereof so that they may intelligently judge of the fitness of such measure as a constituent part of the organic law." (200 Cal. at p. 593.)
That elementary principle is dispositive of any claim that because this redistricting is to be accomplished by initiative it is exempted from the prohibition of article XXI. [7] A statutory initiative is subject to the same state and federal constitutional limitations as are the Legislature and the statutes which it enacts. (Hays v. Wood (1979) 25 Cal.3d 772, 786, fn. 3 [160 Cal.Rptr. 102, 603 P.2d 19]; Fair Political Practices Com. v. State Personnel Bd. (1978) 77 Cal.App.3d 52, 56 [143 Cal.Rptr. 393], disapproved on another point in Pacific Legal Foundation v. Brown (1981) 29 Cal.3d 168 [172 Cal.Rptr. 487, 624 P.2d 1215]; see also, Weaver v. Jordan (1966) 64 Cal.2d 235, 241 [49 Cal.Rptr. 537, 411 P.2d 289], cert. den., 385 U.S. 844 [17 L.Ed.2d 75, 87 S.Ct. 49]; Mulkey v. Reitman (1966) 64 Cal.2d 529, 533 [50 Cal.Rptr. 881, 413 P.2d 825], affd. sub nom. Reitman v. Mulkey (1967) 387 U.S. 369 [18 L.Ed.2d 830, 87 S.Ct. 1627]; Blotter v. Farrell (1954) 42 Cal.2d 804, 810 [270 P.2d 481]; Lucas v. Colorado Gen. Assembly (1964) 377 U.S. 713, 737 [12 L.Ed.2d 632, 647-648, 84 S.Ct. 1459].)
[6b] Real parties' reliance on Associated Home Builders, etc., Inc. v. City of Livermore (1976) 18 Cal.3d 582 [135 Cal.Rptr. 41, 557 P.2d 473, 92 A.L.R.3d 1038], is misplaced. That case did not hold, as they suggest, that the power of initiative is not subject to the same limitations as is legislative [34 Cal.3d 675] action. Rather, in overruling Hurst v. City of Burlingame (1929) 207 Cal. 134, 140-141 [277 P. 308], the court reaffirmed the understanding that the power of the people through the statutory initiative is coextensive with the power of the Legislature. Associated Home Builders held only that notice and hearing requirements of zoning laws were not intended to apply to zoning ordinances enacted by initiative. The court warned that a statute which made compliance with procedural requirements a prerequisite to enactment of local ordinances would be constitutionally suspect if applied to preclude enactment by initiative of an ordinance on a subject on which the city council could legislate. That decision does not, therefore, support the argument that the people may enact a statute which the Legislature has no power to enact. Although the initiative power must be construed liberally to promote the democratic process (Amador Valley Joint Union High Sch. Dist. v. State Bd. of Equalization, supra, 22 Cal.3d 208, 219) when utilized to enact statutes, those statutes are subject to the same constitutional limitations and rules of construction as are other statutes. Indeed, real parties do not question the fact that the proposed initiative measure is subject to general constitutional limitations and, in particular, to the other requirements of article XXI. fn. 15 Given the applicability of article XXI in these respects, we see no basis on which to conclude that the once-a-decade limitation does not apply.
Moreover, while there are no judicial decisions in this state precisely on point, fn. 16 more than 30 years ago the California Attorney General, in an [34 Cal.3d 676] opinion addressing numerous legal questions posed by a proposed congressional reapportionment initiative, concluded: "after a districting statute has become effective, the lawmaking power of the state may not make a second revision, whether by means of a legislative enactment or an initiative statute." (18 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 11, 16 (1951).) That opinion, which was written by Leonard M. Friedman, then a deputy attorney general and later a distinguished and highly respected jurist, clearly reflects the prevailing understanding that the initiative is not exempt from the once-a-decade rule.
Traditional rules of constitutional and statutory interpretation yield the same conclusion. Article XXI, like its predecessor, is absolute in its prohibitory aspect. By 1911, when the California constitutional provision providing for the exercise of the initiative power was first adopted (former art. IV, § 1), the once-a-decade rule had already been clearly established. Nothing on the face of the initiative provision reflects either consideration of the use of the initiative to redistrict, or, if such use is permissible, an intent to exclude initiatives from the operation of the once-a-decade rule. Neither respondents nor real parties in interest have called to our attention anything in the adoption of that provision or in its subsequent readoption as article II, section 8, to suggest such an intent. [8] Well-established principles, applicable both to statutes and constitutional provisions, including constitutional provisions added by initiative, as was former section 1 of article IV (Galvin v. Bd. of Supervisors (1925) 195 Cal. 686, 689-690 [235 P. 450]), require that in the absence of irreconcilable conflict among their various parts, they must be harmonized and construed to give effect to all parts. (Clean Air Constituency v. California State Air Resources Bd. (1974) 11 Cal.3d 801, 813-814 [114 Cal.Rptr. 577, 523 P.2d 617]; Serrano v. Priest (1971) 5 Cal.3d 584, 596 [96 Cal.Rptr. 601, 487 P.2d 1241, 41 A.L.R.3d 1187], cert. den., 432 U.S. 907 [53 L.Ed.2d 1079, 97 S.Ct. 2951]; Select Base Materials v. Board of Equal. (1959) 51 Cal.2d 640, 645 [335 P.2d 672].) [6c] There being no contrary intent apparent and no repugnancy between former article IV, section 6, the predecessor of article XXI as heretofore interpreted, and article II, section 8, we conclude that the initiative process may not be used to do that which the Legislature may not do, to redraw legislative and congressional districts during the decade following a federal decennial census at a time when the Legislature has enacted a valid and effective statute or statutes defining those districts.
[9] Real parties offer an alternative argument: they suggest that even if the once-a-decade rule applies to initiatives, it applies only where statutes [34 Cal.3d 677] defining the districts have become "effective," and they argue that chapters 6 and 8 have not yet become effective because no election has been held pursuant to their provisions.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a similar argument in State v. Zimmerman, supra, 63 N.W.2d 52. There, the question was whether a 1953 redistricting statute violated that state's Constitution which permitted no more than one legislative districting between two federal enumerations. It was argued that the Legislature was free to modify the districts up to January 1, 1954, the date on which the 1951 redistricting statute became operative by its terms. In rejecting that argument, the court stated: "[T]he passage of the [earlier] Act exercised and exhausted the power of the legislature to redistrict during the present interval .... In the absence of a successful attack upon its constitutionality it was a reapportionment, directed by the constitution to be done once and only once following each federal [34 Cal.3d 678] census, which passed beyond the legislature's power of revision at the date of the referendum at the very latest." (63 N.W.2d at p. 56.)
The pendency of actions challenging the validity of chapters 6 and 8 is also irrelevant. This is not an action brought for the purpose of determining the validity of chapters 6 and 8. Therefore, the usual rule that the legislation bears a strong presumption of validity is applicable (In re Ricky H. (1970) 2 Cal.3d 513, 519 [86 Cal.Rptr. 76, 468 P.2d 204]; Martin v. Riley (1942) 20 Cal.2d 28, 39 [123 P.2d 488]), and unless and until judicially declared invalid, chapters 6 and 8 are effective statutes for purposes of determining whether article XXI bars the adoption of a new and different statutory plan, whether by the Legislature or the people through their reserved initiative power.
[10a] Real parties argue that the districts established by chapters 6 and 8 are constitutionally impermissible, asserting that they unnecessarily dilute the strength of minority voters, are not contiguous and compact, have excessive deviations from population equality, and are not "essentially different" from the district plans rejected in the 1982 referenda. They acknowledge that these claims are based on factual allegations which, if controverted, would require a reference (Holt v. Kelly (1978) 20 Cal.3d 560, 562 [143 Cal.Rptr. 625, 574 P.2d 441]), but ask that we nonetheless consider their challenge to the validity of the statutes in this proceeding. We decline the invitation.
As real parties have acknowledged, other actions in which the validity of the statutes is challenged are already pending. The question before this court is whether at the time the initiative petition was presented for filing with the [34 Cal.3d 679] Secretary of State pursuant to Elections Code section 3520 et seq., a presumptively valid districting statute or statutes had been enacted which would become effective prior to the date on which the initiative could be submitted to the voters. [11] Inasmuch as the Secretary of State has no discretion to refuse to submit a properly qualified initiative measure to the voters (Farley v. Healey (1967) 67 Cal.2d 325, 327 [62 Cal.Rptr. 26, 431 P.2d 650]), any challenge based on a claim that the measure is one that may not be presented to the voters must be promptly made and determined by petition for writ of mandate. (See McFadden v. Jordan (1948) 32 Cal.2d 330 [196 P.2d 787].) [10b] Where, as here, the object of the petition is to prevent submission of the measure to the voters at all, the time constraints within which a judicial determination of the challenge must be made preclude expanding the scope of the proceeding beyond the limited question of whether the once-a-decade rule applies to the people's reserved power of initiative. The proponents of the initiative were not without opportunity to challenge the validity of sections 6 and 8 prior to their qualification of the initiative. Both mandate and declaratory relief actions were available to them. (See Yorty v. Anderson, supra, 60 Cal.2d 312, 317.) Having bypassed these remedies, their request that we undertake an examination of the districts created by those statutes at a time when the initiative has qualified and an election has been scheduled, comes too late.
Second, redistricting is not the only context in which the use of the initiative may be preempted by legislative action. There are a number of legislative actions -- including, for example, immediate and irrevocable expenditures of funds -- that cannot effectively be undone by a subsequent initiative [34 Cal.3d 680] measure and that can be prevented, if at all, only by referendum. That is an inherent feature of the balance between popular control and representative government reflected in this state's Constitution.
Real parties argue that we should exempt initiatives from the once-a-decade principle, suggesting at the same time that we might "create" a new rule which would allow two opportunities to redistrict each decade, once by the Legislature and once by initiative, provided the Legislature acts first. This we decline to do. [13] The people of this state, as the ultimate source of legitimate political power, are of course free through constitutional amendment to adopt whatever changes in the existing system they consider appropriate, subject only to limitations contained in the Constitution of the United States. Whatever the merits of possible alternative constitutional mechanisms, it is manifest that our role is simply to apply the applicable constitutional provisions as they currently exist. Under the well-established constitutional principles that we have reviewed, it is clear that because one presumptively valid redistricting plan based on the 1980 census has already been adopted, article XXI prohibits the adoption of a second redistricting plan either by the Legislature or by initiative. fn. 19 [34 Cal.3d 681]
For the first time in 35 years this court has removed from the ballot a qualified initiative measure, thereby preventing the people of California from voting on a subject of great importance to them -- the reapportionment of their legislative boundaries, federal and state. (See McFadden v. Jordan (1948) 32 Cal.2d 330 [196 P.2d 787].) I regret this defeat of the people's right to vote.
In blocking this election, the majority disregards the well established threshold rule of deference to the people's franchise. Only last year we reaffirmed the principle that we will seldom interfere with the people's exercise of their cherished vote: "[I]t is usually more appropriate to review constitutional and other challenges to ballot propositions or initiative measures after an election rather than to disrupt the electoral process by preventing the exercise of the people's franchise, in the absence of some clear showing of invalidity. [Citations.]" (Brosnahan v. Eu (1982) 31 Cal.3d 1, 4 [181 Cal.Rptr. 100, 641 P.2d 200], italics added.) An appellate court recently expressed the same rule in this way: "Even grave doubts as to the constitutionality of an initiative measure do not compel a court to determine its validity prior to its submission to the electorate. [Citations.]" (Gayle v. Hamm (1972) 25 Cal.App.3d 250, 256 [101 Cal.Rptr. 628], italics added.)
Neither the "clear invalidity" nor "grave doubts" as to the initiative has been demonstrated. To the contrary, the measure is plainly constitutional and valid. I am not alone in this view. After a thorough analysis and on March 21, 1983, the Legislature's own attorney, the Legislative Counsel of California, concluded that "The people may enact an initiative statute which adjusts the boundary lines of congressional or legislative districts ... provided the statute adjusting the boundary lines takes effect in time for the orderly conduct of the 1984 Direct Primary elections." The legislative leadership has rejected this advice and now seeks from this court a second opinion. However, even if my colleagues entertained "grave doubts," we should not prohibit the people themselves from expressing their own will regarding the boundaries which the Legislature has again sought to impose upon them. [34 Cal.3d 682]
The majority, conceding that the foregoing rule of deference "... is a salutary one, and where appropriate we adhere to it" (ante, pp. 665-666) nonetheless rejects it assertedly because of the "high cost" of the election and problems relating to the timing of the administrative deadlines for the 1984 elections. (Ante, pp. 665-666.) As a matter of principle, the financial cost of the election should be entirely irrelevant to the legal issue before us -- such costs are incurred whenever a special election is called, yet no exception exists for pre-election review in such cases. (In passing, it perhaps bears noting that the legislative leadership reportedly has vigorously resisted any effort to reduce these costs by combining the special election with a general election in November 1983.) As for the election process and deadlines, we have previously and consistently recognized a reasonable flexibility in these matters and, in the exercise of our equitable powers, have waived or extended these deadlines in order to assure the orderly conduct of the election. (E.g., Assembly v. Deukmejian (1982) 30 Cal.3d 638, 678-679 [180 Cal.Rptr. 297, 639 P.2d 939]; Legislature v. Reinecke (1973) 10 Cal.3d 396, 406-407 [110 Cal.Rptr. 718, 516 P.2d 6].)
Thus, the Constitution forcefully teaches us that the source of ultimate legislative and political power in this state, and all of it, is found not in Sacramento or Washington D.C. but in the people, who may exercise this power both indirectly (through their chosen representatives) or directly (through a referendum or, as here, an initiative). [34 Cal.3d 683]
What is the nature of the initiative? In 1976, Justice Tobriner described it in glowing terms: "The amendment of the California Constitution in 1911 to provide for the initiative and referendum signifies one of the outstanding achievements of the progressive movement of the early 1900's. Drafted in light of the theory that all power of government ultimately resides in the people, the amendment speaks of the initiative and referendum, not as a right granted the people, but as a power reserved by them. Declaring it 'the duty of the courts to jealously guard this right of the people' (Martin v. Smith (1959) 176 Cal.App.2d 115, 117 [1 Cal.Rptr. 307]), the courts have described the initiative and referendum as articulating 'one of the most precious rights of our democratic process' (Mervynne v. Acker [1961] 189 Cal.App.2d 558, 563 [11 Cal.Rptr. 340]). '[I]t has long been our judicial policy to apply a liberal construction to this power wherever it is challenged in order that the right be not improperly annulled. If doubts can reasonably be resolved in favor of the use of this reserve power, courts will preserve it.' (Mervynne v. Acker, supra, 189 Cal.App.2d 558, 563-564; Gayle v. Hamm, supra, 25 Cal.App.3d 250, 258.)" (Associated Home Builders etc., Inc. v. City of Livermore (1976) 18 Cal.3d 582, 591 [135 Cal.Rptr. 41, 557 P.2d 473, 92 A.L.R.3d 1038], italics added, fns. omitted.) In short, we have traditionally insisted that an initiative is entitled to very special and very favored treatment.
Since Associated Home Builders and until today, we have faithfully followed these admonitions regarding this constitutional right. (See, e.g., Brosnahan v. Brown (1982) 32 Cal.3d 236, 241 [186 Cal.Rptr. 30, 651 P.2d 274] [upholding the "Victims' Bill of Rights" initiative]; Fair Political Practices Com. v. Superior Court (1979) 25 Cal.3d 33, 41 [157 Cal.Rptr. 855, 599 P.2d 46] [upholding, in most respects, the Political Reform Act of 1974]; Amador Valley Joint Union High Sch. Dist. v. State Bd. of Equalization (1978) 22 Cal.3d 208, 219-220, 248 [149 Cal.Rptr. 239, 583 P.2d 1281] [upholding the Jarvis-Gann Property Tax initiative].)
In 1981, following the 1980 census, the Legislature purported to reapportion the legislative and congressional districts, pursuant to a constitutional grant of such power. (Cal. Const., art. XXI.) After charges that this [34 Cal.3d 684] plan (Plan I) was greatly and unfairly gerrymandered, referendum petitions challenging Plan I were promptly circulated and the referendum qualified for the June 1982 Primary Election ballot. At this point, responding to litigation challenging the referendum, and despite clear and applicable precedent calling for a stay of the 1981 reapportionment legislation as to legislative districts (Legislature v. Reinecke (1972) 6 Cal.3d 595 [99 Cal.Rptr. 481, 492 P.2d 385]), a bare majority of this court, while permitting the referendum to proceed, ordered that the new, challenged and subsequently invalidated voting boundaries applied to the 1982 legislative and congressional elections. (Assembly v. Deukmejian, supra, 30 Cal.3d 638.) Our action thereby assured that, though the legislative plans might change, the authors would not.
The full import of today's opinion thus becomes manifest. The Legislature precluded the people from another referendum similar to that which last year threw out Plan I. Now the majority of this court not only wrenches from the people their only remaining legal tool, the initiative power, but slams the door to the polling place in the face of the people's attempt to exercise their additional power, also constitutionally protected, to "alter or reform" their government when the public good requires it. (Id., art. II, § 1.) Together, marching in lockstep, the Legislature as to the referendum and now this court as to the initiative, have effectively and completely prevented the people from any exercise of their popular will. The unfortunate consequence of today's ruling is that on this matter of great public moment, the people are thereby blocked from expressing through their ballots their own wishes as to the boundaries of the districts from which their legislative representatives are elected. This decision no longer can be made by the people. The Legislature and this court have made it for them. This dubious result is reached notwithstanding the following: constitutional mandates that the people have reserved to themselves all political power, our repeated assurances that the people's initiative is a "most precious" right, and the [34 Cal.3d 685] absence of any constitutional prohibition whatever against reapportionment by initiative. As a consequence, the ultimate sovereign, the people, find themselves imprisoned within the walls erected by their own servants, the Legislature and this court.
While counsel for petitioners have readily conceded that a legislative or congressional reapportionment may be accomplished by use of the initiative process, my colleagues may have withdrawn from even that concession and their position remains cloudy and vague. (Ante, pp. 673-674, 679.) If, in truth, they really do not accept the right of the people themselves to reapportion by initiative, the distance of the majority's retreat from precedent can be precisely measured. Eighteen years ago Chief Justice Traynor, referring to a people's initiative within the reapportionment context, said for a unanimous court: "The makeup and apportionment of the Legislature involve peculiarly political questions that are not appropriate for this court to decide. They are far better entrusted to the collective political wisdom of the Legislature subject to the power of initiative and referendum reserved to the people." (Silver v. Brown (1965) 63 Cal.2d 270, 280 [46 Cal.Rptr. 308, 405 P.2d 132]; see Blotter v. Farrell (1954) 42 Cal.2d 804, 811-813 [270 P.2d 481] [local redistricting by initiative]; 18 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 11, 14 (1951) [congressional reapportionment by initiative].)
This court's doubts about the people's reapportionment power through initiative are of very recent origin. Indeed, our sister states have uniformly acknowledged that the people may reapportion by exercising their initiative power. (Armstrong v. Mitten (1934) 95 Colo. 425 [37 P.2d 757, 759-760] [legislative reapportionment]; In re Initiative Petition No. 317, etc. (Okla. [34 Cal.3d 686] 1982) 648 P.2d 1207, 1212-1213 [congressional reapportionment]; State v. Hinkle (1930) 156 Wash. 289 [286 P. 839, 840-841] [legislative reapportionment].)
Lacking any express inhibition on the people's initiative power, the majority bases its technical argument upon an expanded interpretation of article XXI of the state Constitution, a very shaky platform. That provision directs the Legislature "In the year following the year in which the national census is taken ..." to adjust the voting boundaries. It refers to the Legislature, not the people. This article may, as discussed below, limit the power of the Legislature to adopt multiple reapportionment plans during a single census period, but it contains no language placing a similar restriction upon the people's initiative power. Undaunted, my colleagues reason that because the people in enacting new political boundaries are exercising "legislative" power, and because the Legislature also exercises "legislative" power, therefore the limitation constitutionally imposed upon the Legislature must [34 Cal.3d 687] restrict the people as well. By interpretation, my colleagues insert the language "or the people through the initiative" after the words "the Legislature" in article XXI. But this judicial redrafting of the article will not do, for the majority misconceives the true constitutional origin of the people's power to reapportion. The right to redistrict the state by initiative derives not from any grant of power originating in article XXI, but rather from the broad reservation to the people of all political and legislative power contained in article II, sections 1 and 8, and article IV, section 1, as previously discussed.
A subsequent case (Yorty v. Anderson (1963) 60 Cal.2d 312, 316-317 [33 Cal.Rptr. 97, 384 P.2d 417]) does not help the majority at all. Yorty made it abundantly clear that the "once-every-decade" principle is not absolute even as to the Legislature, and that the Legislature has the power to adopt a second reapportionment plan within a single census period if the courts, or the people by referendum (p. 317), have nullified the initial plan. Thus, even the Legislature is free from the restraints which the majority without constitutional authority has now imposed upon the people themselves.
At this point, I put these simple but relevant questions to my esteemed colleagues: If the people can, as here, indirectly through referendum, mandate [34 Cal.3d 688] the Legislature to adopt a second reapportionment plan within the same decennial census period, why may not the same people, directly through the initiative achieve the same result? How is it that the public's servants, the Legislature, may place a reapportionment plan beyond the reach of their masters, the people? Put another way, in constitutional analysis how is it that the servants of the people are elevated above the sovereign people who are vested with "all political power"? If the people wanted to impose upon themselves a once-a-decade limitation, why have they not expressly done so, having had ample opportunity as recently as 1980 when article XXI was substituted for former article IV, section 6? Why, contrary to the rules which direct us to interpret the initiative favorably, do my colleagues (1) read into a constitutional section language which the people omitted, and (2) decline to resolve any reasonable doubts in support of the initiative?
As we stated in Fair Political Practices Com. v. Superior Court, supra, 25 Cal.3d 33, at p. 42, "The people having reserved the legislative power to themselves as well as having granted it to the Legislature, there is no reason to hold that the people's power is more limited than that of the Legislature ...." Surely, if contrary to article II, section 1, the constitutional power of the people is not paramount, it cannot be less than that of their own creation, the Legislature.
The Legislature, acting pursuant to article XXI, may reapportion the state once every 10 years. The people, acting pursuant to article II, section 1, may reject the Legislature's effort as they may other legislative acts or indeed rulings of this court through referendum (Yorty, supra, 60 Cal.2d 312, 316-317) and may replace that effort with the people's own plan. The Legislature's role in reapportionment cannot rise to a higher level than that of its source, the people, nor can it, a creation of the people, constitutionally preempt the people. This is a fundamental, constitutional principle with which my colleagues do not choose to grapple.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court last year in In re Initiative Petition No. 317, etc., supra, 648 P.2d at page 1212, applied supportive analysis in squarely upholding the people's exercise of their initiative power to adopt a reapportionment plan despite the Oklahoma Legislature's prior adoption of a plan within the same decennial census period. In Oklahoma, as in California, the "Constitution in no way restricts the initiative against a legislative congressional enactment." (Ibid.) Moreover, in Oklahoma, as in California, "There is no express prohibition contained in the constitutional [reapportionment] provision, nor in the statute, which would prohibit a second valid congressional redistricting within the ten-year period following a [34 Cal.3d 689] decennial census." (Ibid.; see Exon v. Tiemann (D.C.Neb. 1967) 279 F.Supp. 603, 608.)
The Oklahoma Supreme Court concluded that "We hold that the electorate of Oklahoma are entitled to invoke the initiative against a legislative congressional redistricting act even though the initiative and the legislative enactment occur during the same ten (10) year period and are based upon the same federal census." (648 P.2d at p. 1213.) The people of California retain no lesser political authority than the people of Oklahoma. (See also Lucas v. Colorado Gen. Assembly (1964) 377 U.S. 713, 732 [12 L.Ed.2d 632, 84 S.Ct. 1459] [in Colorado, "the initiative device provides a practicable political remedy to obtain relief against alleged legislative malapportionment ..."].)
Warning against a "premature interposition of the judiciary" in cases of this kind, one appellate court made these cogent observations: "We take judicial notice of the fact that a large cross-section of the citizenry entertains an opinion that the government is no longer representative of the people. It takes outlandish financial resources to mount a campaign for office, lobbyists play no small part in controlling the destiny of legislative measures, and in election years our elected representatives procrastinate taking action even on urgent matters. One counter-balance to this trend is to give vitality to [34 Cal.3d 690] the initiative power." (Gayle v. Hamm, supra, 25 Cal.App.3d 250, 257-258, italics added.)
If the people are denied any right to approve or disapprove a blatantly gerrymandered reapportionment plan, then there is absolutely no check on the Legislature's abuse of power. The concept of a Legislature perpetuating its tenure by devising a reapportionment plan wholly immune from review or revision by the people themselves is dangerous and repugnant to constitutional principles. [34 Cal.3d 691]
I would deny the peremptory writ. [34 Cal.3d 692]
l. February 22, 1984, (E-104): Deadline for Secretary of State to prepare and transmit [34 Cal.3d 693] to the county clerks and registrars of voters a notice designating all state offices for which candidates are to be nominated in the Primary Election. Elections Code section 6462.
z. April 12, 1984, (E-54): If on this date, there are 100 or fewer persons registered to vote in any precinct, the clerk may mail each voter an absentee ballot along with a statement that there will be no polling place for the election. Ballots shall be sent as [34 Cal.3d 694] soon as they are available. Elections Code section 1005.
­FN 1. The legislative petitioners have named the county clerk and registrar of voters as respondents individually and as representatives of a class consisting of all clerks and registrars in the state. Because the election cannot be held or the results certified without the participation of the Secretary of State, and issuance of a peremptory writ of mandate directed to her alone would be sufficient to accord petitioners substantially all of the relief they seek, it is not necessary that we determine whether this proceeding may be prosecuted as a defendant class action pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 382. We have not, therefore, certified a class or directed petitioners to serve notice on the county clerks and registrars of the state.
­FN 2. Quentin Kopp, named as a real party in interest, has not appeared in these proceedings.
­FN 3. Special elections are ordered by the Governor pursuant to Elections Code section 2651:
­FN 4. The initiative power is now reserved and defined in article II, section 8 of the California Constitution:
­FN 5. Statutes 1982, First Extraordinary Session 1982-1983, chapter 6, section 2, chapter 8, section 2. The initiative would repeal and replace chapters 1 through 4 of division 18 of the Elections Code, which divisions encompass sections 30000 through 30030, and establish the boundaries respectively of the Assembly, Senate, and congressional districts.
­FN 6. Subdivision 3, of article I, section 2, provides in pertinent part: "Representatives ... shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, ... The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. ..."
­FN 7. That act provides in subdivision (a): "On the first day, or within one week thereafter, of the first regular session of the Eighty-second Congress and of each fifth Congress thereafter, the President shall transmit to the Congress a statement showing the whole number of persons in each State ... as ascertained under ... each subsequent decennial census of the population, and the number of Representatives to which each State would be entitled under an apportionment of the then existing number of Representatives by the method known as the method of equal proportions, no State to receive less than one Member."
­FN 8. While not taking an adversary position in the proceeding, the Secretary of State has provided a calendar of statutory deadlines with which election officials and candidates cannot comply unless they have knowledge of district boundaries. That calendar appears as Appendix A to this opinion.
­FN 9. Article IV, section 8, subdivisions (c)(1) and (2) and (d) provide that legislation may become effective immediately upon signing if the Legislature so directs:
­FN 10. See also, Opinion of Justices (1839) 60 Mass. (6 Cush.) 575, to the same effect.
­FN 11. We stated: "The views expressed herein are not inconsistent with the position taken by this court in Dowell v. McLees, 199 Cal. 144, 146 [248 P. 511], and Wheeler v. Herbert, 152 Cal. 224, 237 [92 P. 353], that the power to form legislative districts under section 6 (as it read prior to the 1926 amendment) could be exercised but once during the period between one federal census and the succeeding one. It is apparent that the statements in the opinions related to the effect of a valid reapportionment, not one which is inoperative because of a violation of the Constitution, and there is nothing in those decisions which would preclude the Legislature from making a second reapportionment after nullification of its first effort by the courts or by referendum." (60 Cal.2d at pp. 316-317, italics in original.)
­FN 12. As the out-of-state authorities cited in Wheeler demonstrate, the once-in-a-decade rule is by no means peculiar to California. As the Supreme Court of Kansas has observed: "It is the general rule that once a valid apportionment law is enacted no future act may be passed by the legislature until after the next regular apportionment period prescribed by the Constitution [citations]." (Harris v. Shanahan (1963) 192 Kan. 183 [387 P.2d 771, 779-780]; see also, State v. Zimmerman (1954) 266 Wis. 307 [63 N.W.2d 52].)
­FN 13. See Opinion of Legislative Counsel of California No. 5177 (Mar. 9, 1951) Reapportionment, 1 Assem. J. (1951 Reg. Sess.) page 1796; 18 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 11, 15 (1951).
­FN 14. The ballot pamphlet prepared for the voters prior to the adoption of article XXI supports the conclusion that no change was intended in the limitation of reapportionment to once each decade. The Official Title and Summary Prepared by the Attorney General stated that the measure "[s]ets forth in a new article the standards to which the Legislature is required to conform in adjusting the boundaries of these districts each decade." (Italics added.) The Legislative Analyst's analysis stated in the introductory sentence of the "Background" summary of the measure: "State Senate, Assembly, congressional and Board of Equalization districts are reapportioned every ten years ...." (Italics added.) Neither the Attorney General's summary nor the Legislative Analyst's explanation of the measure suggested that any change was intended in this regard. None of the arguments for or against the measure suggested any change, and the one argument that mentioned the subject, that of Assemblyman Naylor and Mr. Hofeller, stated that the proposition "would establish reasonable rules for redrawing boundaries for legislative and congressional districts after each census." (Italics added.) (Ballot Pamp., Proposed Amends. to Cal. Const. with arguments to voters, Primary Elec. (June 3, 1980) pp. 20, 22.) Ballot summaries and arguments may be considered when determining the voters' intent and understanding of a ballot measure. (Amador Valley Joint Union High Sch. Dist. v. State Bd. of Equalization (1978) 22 Cal.3d 208, 246 [149 Cal.Rptr. 239, 583 P.2d 1281].)
­FN 15. Article XXI, quoted in full at pages 671-672, ante, requires the establishment of (1) single-member districts, (2) of "reasonably equal" population, (3) which are contiguous, (4) are numbered in a specified manner, and (5) which respect the geographical integrity of cities, counties and geographical regions "to the extent possible without violating the other requirements" of the provision.
­FN 16. In In re Initiative Petition No. 317, Etc. (Okla. 1982) 648 P.2d 1207, 1212, the Oklahoma Supreme Court recently held that an initiative measure -- which had been filed after a congressional redistricting plan had been adopted -- could be put to the voters. In that case, however, the Oklahoma court did not address the question of the effect of a state constitutional once-a-decade limitation on districting by initiative, and thus the decision provides no authority or guidance on this point.
­FN 17. Sloan v. Donoghue (1942) 20 Cal.2d 607 [127 P.2d 922], on which real parties rely, held that a reapportionment was not "effective" at the time the Governor proclaimed a special election to fill a vacancy in a congressional seat occasioned by the death of the incumbent prior to the expiration of his term. The reapportionment statute enacted before his death would govern the next primary and general election. This court held that the district from which the decedent had been elected continued intact inasmuch as nothing in the reapportionment legislation reflected an intent that it apply to vacancies occurring before the next election, and to so interpret it would lead to arbitrary and capricious results. (20 Cal.2d at pp. 611-612.) The court considered neither the question of whether former section 6 of article IV would permit earlier application of a reapportionment statute, nor the question of when the prohibitory aspect of the section operated to preclude a second reapportionment. Sloan was reaffirmed in Legislature v. Reinecke (1973) 10 Cal.3d 396, 404 [110 Cal.Rptr. 718, 516 P.2d 6], in which we recognized stability and continuity of representation and orderly operation as desirable goals in the redistricting process. (Id., at pp. 405-406.)
­FN 18. As applied in this case, the argument is more theoretical than real. The congressional redistricting statute (ch. 6) was not adopted on an "urgency" basis, yet apparently there was no attempt to qualify a referendum as to that statute. Nor has there been any cognizable challenge to the declaration of urgency with respect to the state legislative redistricting statute (ch. 8) (see Stockburger v. Jordan (1938) 10 Cal.2d 636, 642 [76 P.2d 674]).
­FN 19. Some members of the court are of the opinion that the initiative also violates the one-subject rule. (Art. II, § 8, subd. (d).) In their view, legislative reapportionment and congressional reapportionment are separate subjects, as determined by origin (i.e., the number of legislators is prescribed by the state Constitution, the number of representatives by federal law), by legislative practice (i.e., redistricting has always been undertaken by separate bills for the Assembly, the Senate and for congressional representatives), and by voter consideration (e.g., Proposition 10 [congressional districts], Proposition 11 [Senate districts], Proposition 12 [Assembly districts], Primary Election, June 8, 1982.)
Thu, 09/15/1983 34 Cal.3d 658 Review - Criminal Appeal Opinion issued
1 LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA et al., Petitioners, v. GEORGE DEUKMEJIAN, as Governor, etc., et al. (Respondent)
2 s; DON SEBASTIANI et al., Real Parties in Interest. (s; DON SEBASTIANI et al.)
3 LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA et al. (Petitioners)
4 GEORGE DEUKMEJIAN, as Governor, etc., et al. (Respondent)
5 s; DON SEBASTIANI et al., Real Parties in Interest. (s; DON SEBASTIANI et al.)
Sep 15 1983 Denied
SCOCAL, Legislature v. Deukmejian , 34 Cal.3d 658 available at: (https://scocal.stanford.edu/opinion/legislature-v-deukmejian-30700) (last visited Wednesday May 22, 2019).