Opinion ID: 1764141
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Must Each Senate District Be Adjacent to Each Other in Consecutive Order.

Text: The second issue for our resolution concerns the construction of a portion of the language of article III, section 16(a), and whether, as written, that language requires each senate and house district to be both contiguous within itself and that each district must also be contiguous with the next consecutively-numbered district. The house of representatives, although it voted for the adoption of the particular designation of the senate districts contained in SJR 1 E, reserved the right in its policy statement in the joint resolution to question the validity of this numbering scheme. The house, in effect, is arguing that the numbered districts must be adjacent to each other in numerical order. The critical language of article III, section 16(a) that is in issue is as follows: The legislature ... shall apportion the state in accordance with the constitution of the state and of the United States into not less than thirty nor more than forty consecutively numbered senatorial districts of either contiguous, overlapping or identical territory, and into not less than eighty nor more than one hundred twenty consecutively numbered representative districts of either contiguous, overlapping or identical territory. (Emphasis supplied.) It is the position of the house that a distorted numbering pattern had developed under the constitution of 1885, and in its view it was probable, in an effort to avoid such distortions, that the phraseology consecutively numbered senatorial districts of either contiguous, overlapping or identical territory was placed in the present constitution. The house argues that the requirement for contiguous territory refers not only to the territory within each district, but to the relationship of the districts to each other, and must be read in pari materia with the requirement for consecutive numbering. It follows from this construction that each district for the house and for the senate must, therefore, be contiguous with the next consecutively numbered district. In the house's view, the purpose of the provision is to prohibit a distorted numbering which would serve the interest of individual senators or representatives. It is the senate's position, supported by the attorney general, that the provision of article III, section 16(a), requires only that district numbers be consecutive and that the territory within each district be contiguous. They argue that a strict grammatical reading of the sentence in article III, section 16(a), supports the conclusion that the words consecutively numbered appear to modify the noun districts, and the word contiguous modifies the noun territory. We agree with the senate and the attorney general that the plain language of article III, section 16(a), does not modify or limit the word contiguous or territory. Even if the drafters had intended that each district be contiguous with the next consecutively numbered district, as contended by the house, that is not what they grammatically wrote. We conclude that we must interpret the constitutional provision as it has been grammatically written and, consequently, must reject the position of the house. See Johnson v. McDonald, 269 So.2d 682 (Fla. 1972); City of Jacksonville v. Continental Can Co., 113 Fla. 168, 151 So. 488 (1933).