Opinion ID: 1378366
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Senate

Text: The Senate petition (S.F. 24356) recites that the Senate was elected from 40 districts drawn by us in 1973 in Reinecke IV, and that because of population growth and shifts these districts no longer assure compliance with one person, one vote principles. Although all 40 senatorial districts were redrawn by a statute challenged by the Senate referendum petition (Stats. 1981, ch. 536), a subsequent amendment thereto (ch. 538) purported to redraw further 12 of these districts. This later amendment was not included in the referendum attack. The Senate contestants argue that the referendum cannot preserve the existing Senate district boundaries, because some of these boundaries are irreconcilable with the 12 new, unchallenged district boundaries. It is conceded, however, that these 12 new districts interlock with the boundaries drawn in challenged chapter 536 and, accordingly, are wholly dependent upon the validity of those remodeled boundaries. If the referendum successfully abrogates chapter 536, then chapter 538 must, of necessity, likewise fail. An examination of the two statutes discloses that chapter 538 readopts almost all of the boundaries previously adopted by chapter 536, making only very minor changes in the 12 districts affected. In fact, chapter 538 evidently was introduced only as a trailer or clean-up bill designed to correct minor typographical errors in chapter 536 rather than to achieve a substantive revision thereof. Because the alterations made by chapter 538 were minor, and because the boundaries drawn in that chapter were dependent upon the boundaries drawn in the original statute, real parties are correct in assuming that chapter 538 should stand or fall with chapter 536. The referendum process should not be rendered ineffective by the mere reenactment of a challenged plan coupled with inconsequential amendments thereto. The correct test within this context is well established. It is whether the second legislative enactment is essentially the same as the first, although the legislative body may `deal further with the subject matter of the suspended ordinance, by enacting an ordinance essentially different from the ordinance protested against....' ( Martin v. Smith, supra, 176 Cal. App.2d 115, 118-119, italics added; see Reagan v. City of Sausalito (1962) 210 Cal. App.2d 618, 629-630 [26 Cal. Rptr. 775]; In re Stratham (1920) 45 Cal. App. 436, 439-440 [187 P. 986]; Annot. (1954) 33 A.L.R.2d 1118, 1131-1134; Comment (1949) 49 Colum. L.Rev. 705, 706-707.) Martin also requires legislative good faith and `no intent to evade the effect of the referendum petition....' (P. 119.) The foregoing principles are sound and should apply in assessing the effect of chapter 538 under the circumstances of this case. Based upon the same reasons which support the foregoing analysis of the Assembly petitions, I conclude that the newly adopted senatorial boundaries are similarly stayed by the qualification of the referendum petition which directly challenges them. The masters' boundaries previously adopted by us should be used temporarily for the purposes of conducting the 1982 senatorial elections.