Opinion ID: 1177478
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Reapportionment by Initiative

Text: While counsel for petitioners have readily conceded that a legislative or congressional reapportionment may be accomplished by use of the initiative process, my colleagues may have withdrawn from even that concession and their position remains cloudy and vague. ( Ante, pp. 673-674, 679.) If, in truth, they really do not accept the right of the people themselves to reapportion by initiative, the distance of the majority's retreat from precedent can be precisely measured. Eighteen years ago Chief Justice Traynor, referring to a people's initiative within the reapportionment context, said for a unanimous court: The makeup and apportionment of the Legislature involve peculiarly political questions that are not appropriate for this court to decide. They are far better entrusted to the collective political wisdom of the Legislature subject to the power of initiative and referendum reserved to the people.  ( Silver v. Brown (1965) 63 Cal.2d 270, 280 [46 Cal. Rptr. 308, 405 P.2d 132]; see Blotter v. Farrell (1954) 42 Cal.2d 804, 811-813 [270 P.2d 481] [local redistricting by initiative]; 18 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 11, 14 (1951) [congressional reapportionment by initiative].) This court's doubts about the people's reapportionment power through initiative are of very recent origin. Indeed, our sister states have uniformly acknowledged that the people may reapportion by exercising their initiative power. ( Armstrong v. Mitten (1934) 95 Colo. 425 [37 P.2d 757, 759-760] [legislative reapportionment]; In re Initiative Petition No. 317, etc. (Okla. 1982) 648 P.2d 1207, 1212-1213 [congressional reapportionment]; State v. Hinkle (1930) 156 Wash. 289 [286 P. 839, 840-841] [legislative reapportionment].) As our Constitution itself provides, The initiative is the power of the electors to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution and to adopt or reject them. (Cal. Const., art. II, § 8, subd. (a), italics added.) The qualified initiative before us, consistent with standard legislative procedure, proposes statutes (amendments to the Elections Code) which would reapportion the state's legislative and congressional districts. No liberal construction is needed to conclude that the initiative power includes the power to reapportion the state's voting districts, resting as it does on the plain language of the Constitution.