Opinion ID: 1059272
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: compact and contiguous districts

Text: Article II, § 6 of the Constitution of Virginia requires that electoral districts adopted by the General Assembly be composed of contiguous and compact territory. The trial court held that the contiguity requirement included a reasonable opportunity for travel within the district. The trial court also determined that it was not bound by the expert's testimony regarding compactness, and it concluded that it was the court's responsibility to examine each district in context of its geographical form and structure in relation to other portions of the district. . . . Of the districts which complainants had standing to challenge, Senate District 2 and House District 74 were found by the trial court to violate the requirements of Article II, § 6 with regard to compactness and contiguity.
The defendants argue that the trial court erred because it did not review the legislative action using the fairly debatable standard utilized in Jamerson v. Womack, 244 Va. 506, 423 S.E.2d 180 (1992), and because it construed contiguity by water to include convenience of travel within the district. The complainants respond that the trial court correctly found that contiguity required a reasonable opportunity for access within the district, and under the standards developed in Jamerson, the trial court correctly held that the districts in question were plainly repugnant to the Constitution. In Jamerson, the complainants asserted that two electoral districts in the 1991 Senate redistricting plan did not comply with the compactness requirement of Article II, § 6. In resolving the issue, we recited the principles applicable to our review of legislative determinations. First, legislation is entitled to a strong presumption of validity and will be invalidated by the courts only if it clearly violates a constitutional provision. Id. at 510, 423 S.E.2d at 182. [O]nly where the statute in issue is `plainly repugnant' to a constitutional provision will we declare it null and void. Id. (citations omitted). When the constitutionality of a statute depends on facts, the determination of those facts by the legislature can be set aside if it is clearly erroneous, arbitrary, or wholly unwarranted. If the evidence offered in support of the facts in issue would lead objective and reasonable persons to reach different conclusions, the legislative determination is considered fairly debatable and such a determination must be upheld by the courts. Id. at 509-10, 423 S.E.2d at 182. Although Jamerson involved a challenge to the constitutional requirement of compactness only, these principles are equally applicable to the current challenge to the requirement of contiguity. We also note, as we did in Jamerson, that Article II, § 6 speaks in mandatory terms, stating that electoral districts shall be compact and contiguous. This directive, however, does not override all other elements pertinent to designing electoral districts. In making reapportionment decisions, the General Assembly is required to satisfy a number of state and federal constitutional and statutory provisions in addition to designing districts that are compact and contiguous. To do this requires the General Assembly to exercise its discretion in reconciling these often competing criteria. Id. at 511, 423 S.E.2d at 182-83. Finally, any purpose that may underlie the design of an electoral district, while relevant to challenges under other portions of the Constitution of Virginia as discussed below, is not determinative in a challenge based on Article II, § 6. Determinations of contiguity and compactness, as we said in Jamerson, are limited to consideration of the district from a spatial perspective, id. at 514, 423 S.E.2d at 184, taking into consideration the other factors which a legislative body must balance in designing a district. In summary, if the validity of the legislature's reconciliation of various criteria is fairly debatable and not clearly erroneous, arbitrary, or wholly unwarranted, neither the court below nor this Court can conclude that the resulting electoral district fails to comply with the compactness and contiguous requirements of Article II, § 6. We now apply these principles to Senate District 2 and House District 74.
Senate District 2 is comprised of part of the City of Hampton, part of the City of Newport News, one precinct of the City of Suffolk, and one precinct of the City of Portsmouth. The Portsmouth Suffolk portion of the district is separated from the Hampton Newport News portion by the Hampton Roads body of water. Travel by motor vehicle between the two portions of the district is possible by driving four to five miles on the Hampton Roads Beltway, Interstate Highway I-664. The trial court first determined that, to meet the constitutional requirement of contiguity, land masses within a district that are separated by water must provide for every part of the district to be accessible to all other parts of the district without having to travel into a second district. We have not previously considered the elements which may be required to meet the state constitutional mandate of contiguity. Clearly, a district that contained two sections completely severed by another land mass would not meet this constitutional requirement. Moreover, no one disputes that the geography and population of this Commonwealth necessitate that some electoral districts include water, and that land masses separated by water may nevertheless satisfy the contiguity requirement in certain circumstances. The trial court's requirement that there be a bridge, road, or ferry allowing full internal access to all parts of the district is a requirement grounded in the theory that residents of the district need to have physical access to other parts of the district. However, such physical access is not necessary for exercising the right to vote, does not impact otherwise intact communities of interest, and, in today's world of mass media and technology, is not necessary for communication among the residents of the district or between such residents and their elected representative. As indicated above, the General Assembly must balance a number of competing constitutional and statutory factors when designing electoral districts. In addition, traditional redistricting elements not contained in the statute, such as preservation of existing districts, incumbency, voting behavior, and communities of interest, are also legitimate legislative considerations. Id. at 512-14, 423 S.E.2d at 183-84. While ease of travel within a district is a factor to consider when resolving issues of compactness and contiguity, resting the constitutional test of contiguity solely on physical access within the district imposes an artificial requirement which reflects neither the actual need of the residents of the district nor the panoply of factors which must be considered by the General Assembly in the design of a district. Short of an intervening land mass totally severing two sections of an electoral district, there is no per se test for the constitutional requirement of contiguity. Each district must be examined separately. In this case, the trial court found that Senate District 2 failed the constitutional requirement of contiguity, not because there was no access between the two portions of the district, but because the access was unreasonable. The trial court cites no record evidence supporting its position that the travel required was unreasonable and our review of the record shows none. Similarly, the trial court held that the four or five mile separation across water rendered the district non-compact without any further explanation or discussion of evidence supporting this conclusion. The trial court did note, however, that there was no testimony that any particular district was unacceptably non-compact according to either of the measures applied by the experts. [6] In our view, the evidence in this record does not rise to a level of proof implicating application of the fairly debatable standard. And it is wholly insufficient to support a conclusion that Senate District 2 clearly violates or is plainly repugnant to the compactness and contiguity requirements of Article II, § 6. Accordingly, we will reverse the trial court's judgment in that regard.
The trial court also concluded that House District 74 violated the compactness requirement of Article II, § 6 of the Constitution of Virginia because a 20-mile long stretch of land connected the northern portion of the district in Henrico County to the City of Hopewell, the southern portion of the district. Using its definition of constitutional contiguity, the trial court also found that District 74 violated Article II, § 6 because the City of Hopewell precincts were separated from the remainder of the district by the James River. No tunnel, road, or bridge connects this portion of the district with the remainder of the district and travel through other districts is required to access the remainder of District 74 from the Hopewell precincts. In Jamerson, we considered two electoral districts each covering significantly greater area than House District 74. We held that the manner in which the General Assembly reconciled the compactness requirement with the other factors which had to be addressed in creating new electoral districts was not clearly erroneous, arbitrary, or wholly unwarranted. Even though reasonable persons may have configured the district differently in reconciling the various redistricting factors, applying the fairly debatable standard, we concluded that the choice of the General Assembly in reconciling these factors could not be set aside. Id. at 517, 423 S.E.2d at 186. The evidence in this case showed that House District 74 has the lowest rankings for compactness, but the expert testimony was that this district did not fall below an objective standard for compactness. The new District 74 contained 98.3% of the 1991 district. The change from the 1991 district was the reunification of a previously split precinct in Charles City County, the City of Hopewell precincts, and two precincts in Henrico County. The record also shows that the incumbent member of the House of Delegates from House District 62 was a Republican. Removing the highly Democratic Hopewell precincts from District 62 made that district a safer Republican district. The changes to House District 74 did not improve the district's rating with regard to compactness, but they did bring the district closer to the target population. The black voting age population (BVAP) fell from 65% to 60%, but the district continues to have more African Americans than any other district in HB 1. Although the record shows that travel between the Hopewell precincts and the remainder of the district requires travel through another district, there is nothing in this record showing that such access is unreasonable, unduly burdensome, or adversely impacts the ability of residents to secure meaningful representation of their interests or effective communication with their elected representative. Furthermore, we think it is significant that this district's configuration has remained substantially the same for over a decade, allowing development of relationships and communities of interest relative to election of delegates. Maintaining an existing district in this case and removing the Hopewell precincts from the adjoining district in which the incumbent is Republican reflects the traditional redistricting considerations of incumbency. This record reflects a balancing by the General Assembly of population equality, incumbency, maintaining communities of interest, and avoiding retrogression in designing District 74. While far from the most compact district, and containing a small portion that is contiguous only by water, nothing in this record indicates that the District is repugnant to the constitutional principles of compact and contiguous electoral districts. The expert testimony shows that the district is within acceptable objective measures of compactness. No one has testified that communication between the residents of the district and their elected representative has been adversely impacted in the past in a substantially similar district, or will be adversely impacted in the future because of the design of the district. No intervening land mass separates one portion of the district from another. Given the strong presumption of constitutionality afforded legislative acts, and the fairly debatable standard we apply when considering the validity of such acts, we conclude that the trial court erred in holding that District 74 violated the compactness and contiguity requirements of Article II, § 6 of the Constitution of Virginia.