Opinion ID: 1239200
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 26

Heading: order denying objection to interim reapportionment plan

Text: The court met on June 19, 1972, and considered objections to the interim reapportionment plan. It is ordered: 1. Petitioners' objection to the inclusion in the population base of all military personnel who were enumerated in the 1970 census of Alaska, is denied. The court could find no feasible basis for the exclusion of part or all of the military population from the population base required for interim reapportionment. Under the Alaska Constitution this base must include all residents of the State of Alaska as enumerated in the decennial census. [1] The base is not limited to voter population. Neither the 1971 reapportionment plan nor the materials relied upon by the petitioners provide a legal basis for identifying nonresident military personnel in order to eliminate them from the population base. [2] In the absence of reliable data, the elimination of the military from the population base as a class of persons would be a denial of equal protection of the law, prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. [3] 2. The petitioners' objection which would require designation of seats in multi-member districts in the interim plan is denied. We cannot accept the assertions of petitioners that the court was bound, in fashioning an interim plan, to use those methods employed in the 1971 Reapportionment Plan. In fashioning an interim plan, the court may use such techniques and remedies as it finds appropriate to effectuate the one-man, one-vote principle. 3. Petitioners' objection to the designation of incumbent Senators elected in 1970, as the representatives of the districts from which they were elected for the next two years, is denied. In an interim plan it is preferable not to shorten the terms of Senators, particularly as foreshortening such terms may become a necessity upon the formulation of a permanent plan. The additions or substitutions of geographical areas under the interim plan have not so materially changed the population base which elected each of the Senators as to prevent them from adequately representing their designated districts. A comparison of the actual vote received by these Senators in the 1970 election with the new population base reveals that they can continue properly to represent their districts. 4. Objections received from some of the residents of Eagle River, Birchwood, Peters Creek, Fire Lake and Chugiak have been considered, but the court is unable to devise a feasible plan, fulfilling constitutional requirements which would place this area in the same election district and still permit proper representation in the Matanuska-Susitna area and the Prince William Sound area, which have been combined to form Senate District D. All proposed combinations of population in the Eagle River-Birchwood area cause serious dislocation to adjoining districts. This would not be constitutionally permissible under the standards of the United States Supreme Court which we are bound to follow. [4] 5. Respondents' objection concerning the designation of Senator Don Young as an incumbent Senator from District J is denied. The interim plan designates Election Districts 16 and 18 to compose Senate District I. The 1972 election of a Senator from this area will provide representation of this rural area outside of urban Fairbanks. Senator Young resided in the election district from which he was elected and had been a resident of that district as required by the Alaska Constitution. [5] He was properly elected from such district, which had the majority of its voters in urban Fairbanks. In providing an interim plan, the court has broad power to determine those districts to be represented by incumbents. DATED at Juneau, Alaska, this 20th day of June, 1972. George F. Boney Chief Justice Jay A. Rabinowitz Associate Justice Roger G. Connor Associate Justice Robert C. Erwin Associate Justice I concur in the order except as to paragraph 1, thereof. I would eliminate from the population base those members of the military, unaccompanied by dependents, living in barracks, on ships, etc. They constitute 51.9 percent of the total number of military personnel enumerated in the census. (Master's Report, p. 886) My reasons for adopting this position will be set forth in a separate dissenting opinion. Robert Boochever Associate Justice