Opinion ID: 1177478
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: one reapportionment per decade: the historical understanding

Text: (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. More than 75 years ago this court first considered whether a second change in the boundary of a legislative district was permitted by former article IV, section 6, and held that it was not. In Wheeler v. Herbert (1907) 152 Cal. 224 [92 P. 353], the question was presented in the context of a statute that permitted a change in the boundary between Fresno and Kings Counties which shifted territory from the southernmost part of the former to the latter. A resident of the territory challenged the statute on a variety of grounds. It was claimed that article IV, section 6, did not permit the Legislature to change a legislative district. That would occur, it was argued, if the county lines by which existing districts were defined should change. The court agreed that article IV, section 6, limited the Legislature's power to redistricting only once after each decennial census. Because the statute did not purport to change the legislative districts, we concluded the existing legislative districts would continue and upheld the statute. Considering the power to change the boundaries of legislative districts, we said: The provisions of section 6 of article IV being construed as limitations, and being mandatory and prohibitory, it follows from their terms, and from the application of the maxim, expressio unius est exclusio alterius, that the legislative power to form legislative districts can be exercised but once during the period between one United States census and the succeeding one, and that, having been thus exercised in 1901, the districts cannot be again adjusted until the season of 1911. The general rule in regard to constitutional limitations of this character is that that which cannot be done directly cannot be done by indirection. This is a case to which the rule should be applied, since great abuses might follow a too frequent exercise of the power. (152 Cal. at p. 237.) 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; [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 Wis. 170 [88 N.W. 48]; Wade v. Richmond (1868) 18 Grat. (Va.) 583, 608-620; Commissioners v. Ballard (1873) 69 N.C. 18.) The Michigan Constitution provided that each apportionment and the division into representative districts by any board of supervisors shall remain unaltered until the return of another enumeration. The Michigan Supreme Court held that although that limitation on the boards of supervisors did not mention the legislature, the language of the section mandating legislative reapportionment after each state or federal census was so clear and the design so plain that it must be read to prohibit additional changes in districts, whether by the legislature or a board of supervisors. As to the express limitation, the court remarked: The provision noticed was not casually inserted, and without attention to its possible scope. It falls in with others which help to show a settled purpose to organize electoral districts in a way most likely to secure unity of interest and convenience, and to shield them for fixed periods against change. (29 Mich. at p. 118.) The North Carolina Constitution then provided that the senatorial districts established after each census shall remain unaltered until after another census. The New York Constitution provided that legislative and local districts `shall remain unaltered until another enumeration shall be made....' (147 N.Y. at p. 13.) The limitation was in the New York Constitution of 1846 ( Lanning v. Carpenter, supra, 20 N.Y. 447, 451), and the Constitution of 1822 had required a decennial census followed by a new apportionment of members of the Legislature. ( Id., at p. 453.) 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 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 intercensus 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.) [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.).) [12]