Opinion ID: 173060
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Lower Court Applications

Text: Other courts addressing annexation and secession statutes have also deferred to state laws restricting the franchise in local boundary elections. Two local election boundary decisions are particularly helpful: Moorman v. Wood, 504 F.Supp. 467 (E.D.Ky.1980), and City of New York v. State, 158 A.D.2d 169, 557 N.Y.S.2d 914, 916 (N.Y.App.Div.), aff'd, 76 N.Y.2d 479, 561 N.Y.S.2d 154, 562 N.E.2d 118 (1990). These decisions both upheld state restrictions on voting rights when a portion of an existing political entity sought to detach and either join another jurisdiction or form a new one. Moorman involved several neighborhoods seeking simultaneous detachment from a large city and annexation into two adjoining, smaller cities. See 504 F.Supp. at 468. A Kentucky law permitting referenda to accomplish these actions limited voter participation to residents of the detaching neighborhoods. See id. Residents of the larger city argued this law violated equal protection because it does not permit all of the voters of [the larger city] to vote on what amounts to the de-annexation of part of their city, a matter in which they claim a substantial interest. Id. The larger city voters argued that, among other impacts, detaching the neighborhoods would substantially impact the larger city's tax base. See id. After reviewing Hunter, Lockport, Holt, and other Supreme Court voting rights decisions, see id. at 471-73, the Moorman court held that: so long as the residents of the affected areas are treated alike within those areas, statutory provisions for a wide variety of voting schemes will be upheld against an equal protection attack, and the vote of one area may be give[n] more weight than that of the other, or the franchise may even be granted to one area and denied to another if a rational basis exists for so providing. Id. at 473 (emphasis added) (citing Hunter, 207 U.S. 161, 28 S.Ct. 40, 52 L.Ed. 151). The court relied on Hunter for the proposition that these difficult policy problems of local government are matters for the individual states to resolve, and the federal courts should stay out of them if principles of due process and equal protection are observed, as construed in the light of federalism. Id. at 477. The second secession case, City of New York, involved a New York statute that created a procedure allowing residents of Staten Island to decide whether the borough should detach from the rest of New York City. The procedure involved two referenda in which the residents of Staten Island would vote on detachment, but did not give other voters in New York City an opportunity to vote on the matter. See 557 N.Y.S.2d at 915. The City challenged the state procedures on equal protection grounds, but the state court declined to apply strict scrutiny. Instead, the court held that Hunter, Lockport, Holt, and the Supreme Court's other voting rights decisions provided that the State can legitimately adopt a geographic classification based upon the boundaries of a proposed new political subdivision to be created if approved by the electorate of the smaller, but significant, separating community. Id. at 917. The special interests of Staten Island residents justified limiting the vote to them. See id. New York's highest appellate court subsequently affirmed the holding, finding the state's decision to restrict voting to residents of Staten Island was a reasonable classification based on the distinct interest of that subdivision of the State. 561 N.Y.S.2d 154, 562 N.E.2d at 121. Moorman and City of New York considered the precise issue the Utah detachment statute raiseswhether, in a voter referendum on a proposed detachment from an existing state political entity, a state may restrict voting to persons residing in the proposed area of detachment and found rational basis review to be appropriate. [7] In addition to these cases, numerous other authorities addressing analogous legal issues support our conclusion that the deferential standard of scrutiny is required. See, e.g., St. Louis County v. City of Town and Country, 590 F.Supp. 731 (E.D.Mo.1984) (upholding an annexation statute providing for a vote of the residents of the annexing city and a separate vote of the residents of the area to be annexed, but allowing the residents of the county outside the area to be annexed to vote); Hayward v. Edwards, 456 F.Supp. 1151 (D.S.C.1977), aff'd sub nom Hayward v. Clay, 573 F.2d 187 (4th Cir.1978) (upholding portion of annexation statute that allowed separate votes of annexing and annexed areas; striking portion of statute which allowed property owners to veto annexation); Murphy v. Kansas City, 347 F.Supp. 837 (W.D.Mo.1970) (upholding annexation statute that allowed residents of annexing city to vote, but permitting residents of area to be annexed to vote); Bd. of Supervisors v. Local Agency Formation Comm'n, 3 Cal.4th 903, 13 Cal.Rptr.2d 245, 838 P.2d 1198 (1992) (holding that restricting voter participation in a municipal incorporation referendum to county residents of area proposed to be incorporated did not violate the Equal Protection Clause); Givorns v. City of Valley, 598 So.2d 1338 (Ala.1992) (upholding under the rational basis test a statute limiting the franchise to qualified voters living within the boundaries of the area to be annexed); In re Petition for Detachment of Land from Morrison Comm. Hosp. Dist., 318 Ill.App.3d 922, 251 Ill.Dec. 796, 741 N.E.2d 683 (2000) (holding that limiting voter participation in hospital district detachment referendum to residents of area proposed to be detached did not violate the state's due process clause). [8]