Opinion ID: 2169494
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Population

Text: Although plaintiffs concede that population, as an isolated factor, is insufficient to find the Senate Plan unconstitutional, plaintiffs have argued that the population deviations in the challenged districts are extremely close to violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This Court does not find this argument persuasive in light of the relevant case law. In Sims, the United States Supreme Court stated that population equality should be a goal in any state redistricting plan; however, some latitude must be given in order to preserve political subdivisions and peculiar state interests. Minor deviations from mathematical equality among state legislative districts are insufficient to make out a prima facie case of invidious discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment so as to require justification by the State. Brown v. Thomson, 462 U.S. 835, 842, 103 S.Ct. 2690, 2696, 77 L.Ed.2d 214, 221 (1983). An overall deviation in population that is less than 10% is generally said to be constitutionally sufficient. Id. The challenged Senate districts all fall within the aforementioned range. As such, the actual deviations are held to be de minimis in light of judicial precedent. The median average population deviation in the challenged districts is 7.35%; whereas, the median average population deviation for the Senate plan as a whole is 9.91%. Therefore, this percentage falls within the clearly defined range for acceptable population deviations in the context of state redistricting plans. Special exceptions were not tolerated by the legislature. Constitutional standards were analyzed and followed in light of the enormous task of finding the appropriate middle ground between population equality and the redrawing of state district lines.