Opinion ID: 1296917
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State Role in Legislative Redistricting

Text: The apportionment of legislative districts is a matter primarily reserved to the respective states. Growe v. Emison, 507 U.S. 25, 34, 113 S.Ct. 1075, 122 L.Ed.2d 388, 400 (1993) (stating that the Constitution leaves with the States primary responsibility for apportionment of their federal congressional and state legislative districts); see also Chapman v. Meier, 420 U.S. 1, 27, 95 S.Ct. 751, 42 L.Ed.2d 766, 785 (1975); Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 586, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506, 541 (1964). Moreover, issues concerning the proper construction and application of ... the Constitution of North Carolina can ... be answered with finality [only] by this Court. State ex rel. Martin v. Preston, 325 N.C. 438, 449, 385 S.E.2d 473, 479 (1989); see also PruneYard Shopping Ctr. v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 81, 100 S.Ct. 2035, 64 L.Ed.2d 741, 752 (1980); Murdock v. City of Memphis, 20 Wall. 590, 87 U.S. 590, 626, 22 L.Ed. 429, 441 (1874); State v. Arrington, 311 N.C. 633, 643, 319 S.E.2d 254, 260 (1984). Although there is a strong presumption that acts of the General Assembly are constitutional, it is nevertheless the duty of this Court, in some instances, to declare such acts unconstitutional. Preston, 325 N.C. at 448-49, 385 S.E.2d at 478; see also Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 5 U.S. 137, 177, 2 L.Ed. 60, 73 (1803) (stating that [i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is); Bayard v. Singleton, 1 N.C. 5, 6-7 (1787). Indeed, within the context of state redistricting and reapportionment disputes, it is well within the power of the judiciary of a State to require valid reapportionment or to formulate a valid redistricting plan. Scott v. Germano, 381 U.S. 407, 409, 85 S.Ct. 1525, 14 L.Ed.2d 477, 478 (1965) (per curiam). The State Constitution provides that [t]he General Assembly, at the first regular session convening after the return of every decennial census of population taken by order of Congress, shall revise the senate districts and the apportionment of Senators among those districts and shall revise the representative districts and the apportionment of Representatives among those districts. N.C. Const. art. II, §§ 3, 5. The State Constitution specifically enumerates four limitations upon the redistricting and reapportionment authority of the General Assembly, summarized as follows: (1) Each Senator and Representative shall represent, as nearly as possible, an equal number of inhabitants. (2) Each senate and representative district shall at all times consist of contiguous territory. (3) No county shall be divided in the formation of a senate or representative district. (4) Once established, the senate and representative districts and the apportionment of Senators and Representatives shall remain unaltered until the next decennial census of population taken by order of Congress. See N.C. Const. art. II, §§ 3, 5. The WCP, the third limitation above, provides that [n]o county shall be divided in the formation of a senate district, N.C. Const. art. II, § 3(3), and that [n]o county shall be divided in the formation of a representative district, N.C. Const. art. II, § 5(3).