Opinion ID: 1151125
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Objections of California Democratic Congressional Delegation (DCD)

Text: (7) DCD's brief is a copy of a brief it filed in federal district court asking that court to assume jurisdiction over the reapportionment issue. DCD raises two primary objections to the Masters' congressional plan: (1) its asserted failure to achieve sufficiently close population equality between the various proposed congressional districts, and (2) its asserted noncompliance with the Voting Rights Act. The population equality issue is discussed at length in the Report (pp. 753-757, infra ). Although DCD has offered plans that assertedly have only a slight deviation from perfect equality, the federal cases allow deviations as great as or greater than those in the Masters' plans, if supported by a legitimate state objective. (See Karcher v. Daggett, supra, 462 U.S. at pp. 740-741 [77 L.Ed.2d at p. 147].) As previously indicated, the benefits of using undivided census tracts, namely, to maintain reasonable geographical integrity, preserve communities of interest, and assure full participation by minority groups in the reapportionment process, amply constitute such justification. The dissent herein suggests that one of DCD's proposed plans would be preferable because of the small population variance. We observe, however, that the Masters specifically found DCD's plans to be violative of article XXI of the state Constitution and its requirements of contiguity and respect for geographical integrity of county boundaries and geographical regions. (Report, pp. 766-767, infra. ) Our review of the maps of DCD's submission confirms numerous instances of such violations, supporting the Masters' finding in that regard. Contrary to the assumption of the dissent herein, these violations cannot be fairly characterized as trivial in nature (dis. opn., post, p. 735), and the DCD's proposed plans would not constitute an acceptable alternative under any circumstances. Therefore, we endorse the Masters' foregoing finding and also approve in principle the Masters' concept of functional contiguity and compactness (see Report, pp. 759-763, infra ). As for asserted Voting Rights Act violations, none of DCD's claims appears meritorious. First, DCD assumes the Masters' plans are retrogressive in one respect, by making it more difficult for an incumbent Hispanic congressman (Roybal) to gain reelection in his new district (Cong. Dist. 30). Although DCD focuses narrowly on Congressional District 30, the Masters in fact created two Hispanic majority districts in the area now represented by Representative Roybal, and while DCD contends that the Hispanic voter registration in Congressional District 30 is somewhat lower than the Hispanic voter registration in Representative Roybal's current district, under the DCD's voter registration data the Hispanic voter registration in Congressional District 33 is considerably higher than in Representative Roybal's current district. (Significantly, the DCD presented no Hispanic voter registration statistics to the Masters, seemingly indicating DCD's initial view that such statistics were irrelevant.) Under these circumstances, no improper retrogression appears. DCD also argues that new Congressional District 32 was drawn to include substantial areas with White voters, thereby hindering Black voters from electing a representative in that area. Our review of the plans indicates the new district will have a Black population of 40.3 percent (a figure close to that in DCD's proposed district, and one that is nearly twice the percentage of Whites therein), offering Black voters a reasonable opportunity to elect a representative. Moreover, the Masters' inclusion of the White areas in question evidently was a consequence of their efforts to further benefit Black voters in two neighboring districts (Cong. Dists. 35 and 37). We think it significant that NAACP and CORE affirmatively support the Masters' proposed congressional districts, including Congressional District 32. Finally, DCD asserts that in drawing Congressional District 52, the Masters should have combined the Hispanic population in Imperial County with the Hispanic population in Coachella Valley. Yet the Masters' proposal is nearly identical in this respect to one proposed by DCD to the Masters, and represented to them as faithfully complying with the Voting Rights Act. In any event, the Masters deemed the two Hispanic areas not sufficiently geographically compact, being separated by many miles. Significantly, MALDEF has not complained to us of the alignment that the Masters propose.