Opinion ID: 1369329
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Standard for review of the constitutional challenge to the Act.

Text: (1) In reviewing restrictions on the franchise, this court and the United States Supreme Court have applied a two-level test: ordinarily legislation is valid if it bears a rational relationship to a conceivable legitimate state purpose, but distinctions involving suspect classifications or touching upon fundamental rights require closer examination, and are valid only if the state proves that the distinctions are necessary to serve a compelling state interest. ( Fullerton, ante, pp. 779, 798-799; Curtis v. Board of Supervisors, supra, 7 Cal.3d 942, 951-952.) Curtis itself held that a statute which limited voting rights in connection with the incorporation of a city touched upon fundamental rights, and thus was subject to strict judicial scrutiny; Levinsohn v. City of San Rafael (1974) 40 Cal. App.3d 656 [115 Cal. Rptr. 309] applied the same doctrine to annexation elections. As we explain in Fullerton, ante, pages 779, 805, this constitutional test requires us to determine the constitutionally relevant boundaries, `the geographic boundaries of the governmental entity concerned' ( Holt Civic Club v. Tuscaloosa [1978] 439 U.S. [60] at p. 68 [58 L.Ed.2d 292, 300, 99 S.Ct. 383]), and subject to strict scrutiny any measure which limits voting within those boundaries. This requirement, however, raises a difficult problem in cases involving annexation or deannexation, for in such cases one can plausibly argue either that the relevant entity is limited to the smaller territory whose legal status will be altered by a successful vote (the affected territory), or that it includes the larger entity (the affected city) whose territory may be augmented or diminished. Academic analysis suggests that the relevant area includes both the affected territory and the affected city. [W]hile geographic restrictions on voting in local elections are justifiable as a general matter, limiting the franchise in annexation elections to voters in either the annexing or the annexed area may not be similarly acceptable.... Annexing and annexed citizens clearly share general concerns with the governance and welfare of the area.... When a state has chosen to enfranchise only one of the areas affected by the annexation, it must justify the disfranchisement of the other area by a showing that it promotes some significant state interest. (Note, The Right to Vote in Municipal Annexations (1975) 88 Harv.L.Rev. 1571, 1578-1581; see, Note, Annexation Elections and the Right to Vote (1973) 29 UCLA L.Rev. 1093, 1113-1114.) We confronted a similar problem in Fullerton, in which we considered a proposed secession of the community of Yorba Linda from the Fullerton Joint Union High School District. We held that the entire Fullerton district, not just Yorba Linda, was the relevant geographical area for application of a standard of strict scrutiny. We noted that the Fullerton district is not merely a neighboring district incidentally affected by the secession of Yorba Linda, but the existing entity with legal authority over high school education in Yorba Linda; the impact of the secession is in large part the consequence of the present status and authority of the Fullerton district. ( Ante, p. 803.) The withdrawal of Yorba Linda, we observed, might cause the remaining district to incur a substantial debt, leave it with excess educational capacity, and affect its education programs. [4] In like fashion, the annexation of Eastview at issue in the present case affects not only its residents, but also the present residents of the City. That impact is not merely the effect of geographic propinquity, but the effect of the establishment of a legal relationship. The residents of the affected territory will be entitled to vote in City elections and participate in City government. The City will acquire a right to assess taxes and to enforce its ordinances and regulations in the affected territory; it incurs also a duty to extend police protection and other municipal services to that territory. Thus, the establishment of the legal relationship contemplated in this case, like the dissolution of a legal relationship involved in Fullerton, has a substantial effect upon the residents of both territories involved. We therefore conclude that the relevant geographic confines, for the purpose of constitutional analysis, includes both the affected territory and the affected city. We must therefore inquire whether the restrictions on the franchise imposed by sections 35228 and 35231 serve a compelling state interest and are necessary to further that purpose.