Opinion ID: 1764141
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Holdover Senate Terms

Text: The major contested issue submitted in this apportionment proceeding is whether the Florida Constitution or the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution requires elections to be held in all senate districts in 1982, or whether the senators elected in 1980 from odd-numbered districts for four-year terms hold over until 1984. The principal provisions of the Florida Constitution that must be construed are article III, section 1, and article III, section 15(a). Section 1 of article III provides: SECTION 1. Composition.  The legislative power of the state shall be vested in a legislature of the State of Florida, consisting of a senate composed of one senator elected from each senatorial district and a house of representatives composed of one member elected from each representative district. (Emphasis supplied.) Section 15(a) of article III provides: SECTION 15. Terms and qualifications of legislators.  (a) SENATORS. Senators shall be elected for terms of four years, those from odd-numbered districts in the years the numbers of which are multiples of four and those from even-numbered districts in even-numbered years the numbers of which are not multiples of four; except, at the election next following a reapportionment, some senators shall be elected for terms of two years when necessary to maintain staggered terms. (Emphasis supplied.) At the outset, the senate accepts the view that the courts have both the power and the duty to truncate the terms of legislators elected from malapportioned districts which violate the one-person one-vote command of the equal protection clause, and that elected officials have no property rights to the office to which they have been elected. The Florida Senate claims no such rights in its argument before this Court. The senate does not, however, agree that our constitution requires truncated terms in the situation now before the Court or that the Fourteenth Amendment has in any way been violated by the holdover terms. The senate contends that the language of section 15(a) mandates four-year staggered terms for senators. The senate argues that the exception provision of section 15(a) should be used only when necessary to maintain staggered terms, illustrating that it was necessary in 1972 when all senators were elected in 1968 for four-year terms but that it is not necessary in 1982 when the system is operating in a staggered fashion. It alleges that the important purpose of the holdover staggered terms provided in section 15(a) is to ensure that the senate will be a continuing body with at least one-half of its members being experienced legislators. The senate also contends that the use of the word  re apportionment in article III, section 15(a), as contrasted with the use of the word apportion or apportionment in article III, section 16, has considerable significance. It argues that the term  re apportionment means the exception provision applies only when a constitutional amendment changes the composition of the senate or when reapportionment is mandated by a court order. We reject the argument of the senate that the word apportionment, as used in the constitution, means apportionment by the legislature, and the word reapportionment, as used in the exception phrase of section 15(a), applies only when there is apportionment by a court. We find the terms reapportionment and apportionment to have been used in section 15 and in section 16 interchangeably, and conclude that there was no intent to apply a different meaning to each of these words. We note that both reapportionment and apportionment are used without any intent to distinguish the terms in section 16(f) of article III. In addition, the legislature previously used the terms interchangeably in the 1965 reapportionment plan. See H.B. 19-XX, Florida Legislative Special Session (1965). The attorney general agrees with the senate that the exception provision of section 15(a) is not applicable to any of the twenty senators elected in 1980, but concedes that the exception provision would apply if a senate district were changed by more than fifty percent, in addition to five other circumstances not in issue in this proceeding. [2] In oral argument, the senate also conceded that the exception provision of section 15(a) would apply on equal protection grounds if the composition of the district of a holdover senator had been changed by more than fifty percent. The principal argument by the senate and the attorney general is that case law in other jurisdictions supports as justifiable, under the equal protection clause, a delay in the implementation of reapportionment to maintain an established state public policy expressed by statute or constitution that there be staggered terms for continuity in the legislative body. See Mader v. Crowell, 498 F. Supp. 226 (M.D.Tenn. 1980) (staggered terms by Tenn.Const., art. II, § 3); Ferrell v. Oklahoma ex rel. Hall, 339 F. Supp. 73 (W.D.Okla.), aff'd, 406 U.S. 939, 92 S.Ct. 2045, 32 L.Ed.2d 328 (1972) (staggered terms by Okla.Const.art. 5, § 9A); Legislature of the State of California v. Reinecke, 10 Cal.3d 396, 110 Cal. Rptr. 718, 516 P.2d 6 (1973) (staggered terms by Cal.Gov.Code § 9002 (Deering 1973)); Twilley v. Stabler, 290 A.2d 636 (Del. 1972) (staggered terms by Del. Code Ann.Tit. 29, § 808 (1974)). [3] In some jurisdictions, the establishment of staggered terms was by a constitutional provision, while in other jurisdictions, the provision for staggered terms was established by statute. We disagree with the views of the senate and the attorney general because in none of these cases did the constitution or the statute have anything similar to the exception language provided in section 15(a). We hold, consistent with the views of the house of representatives and Common Cause, that the Florida Constitution, by its provisions, requires, upon reapportionment, that senate terms be truncated when a geographic change in district lines results in a change in the district's constituency. Because the new plan alters all district lines and the constituency therein, elections must be held in all senate districts in 1982. We reject the view of the League of Women Voters that terms always terminate with a new apportionment plan even if district lines are unchanged. Our holding results from a reasonable, rational construction of the words of the Florida Constitution and is supported by the history of apportionment in this state. Our reasoning to support this holding requires not only an interpretation of the words of the constitution but also a review of the history of our apportionment process during the last twenty-seven years. In construing this exception provision of our constitution, we may look at the purpose of the provision, the evil sought to be remedied, and the circumstances leading to its inclusion in our constitutional document in order that light may be obtained `from contemporary facts or expositions; from antecedent mischiefs, from known habits, manners and institutions; and from other sources almost innumerable, which may justly affect the judgment in drawing a fit conclusion in the particular case.' State ex rel. West v. Gray, 74 So.2d 114, 116 (Fla. 1954). The history shows why this exception provision was placed in section 15(a) of our constitution. The 1968 constitutional provisions pertaining to apportionment were drafted by a judicially-apportioned legislature, Swann v. Adams, 263 F. Supp. 225 (S.D.Fla. 1967), after a tortuous twelve-year reapportionment process, which commenced in 1955. From the years 1955 through 1966, no fewer than seven apportionment plans were formulated by the state legislature, all of which were determined eventually to be invalid by the federal judiciary. There was constant apportionment litigation beginning in 1962 with the Swann v. Adams series of cases. [4] In 1967, after rejecting the plan submitted by the state legislature, the U.S. District Court imposed judicial apportionment and provided for March, 1967, elections. It was this legislature which added the exception language to section 15(a) in August, 1967, and approved the proposed Florida Constitution at its special session in July, 1968, for presentation and eventual adoption by the people in November, 1968, including the exception provision in issue in this proceeding. [5] Journal of the Senate, Regular Session 1967, at 2; Journal of the Senate, Special Session June 24, 1968  July 3, 1968, at 2; Journal of the House of Representatives, Regular Session 1967, at 2; Journal of the House of Representatives, Extraordinary Session June 24, 1968  July 3, 1968, at 2. As this history demonstrates, the multiple, time-consuming problems of apportionment litigation were fresh in the minds of the legislators who created this provision. Although this new constitution provided for staggered terms and in part established the principle of continuity in office, this same legislature, by chapter 67-479, section 6, Laws of Florida (codified as section 10.011(2), Florida Statutes (1967)), provided that all senators would run in November of 1968 and their terms would all terminate together after the November, 1972, elections. The schedule adopted with the new constitution directed that the requirements of staggered terms ... would apply only to senators elected in November of 1972, and thereafter, art. XII, § 12, Fla. Const. (1968), and the analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau pertaining to that schedule provision, submitted to the people, says that this [p]ostpones staggering of senators' terms until the general election of 1972, which would be in accordance with a reapportionment based on the 1970 census. Florida Legislature, Draft of Proposed 1968 Constitution, July 20, 1968, at 22: Florida State Archives, RG005, Series 725, Box 1, file 19. In our view, the framers of the constitution were not as concerned with continuity in office as with making sure that there would be a fair apportionment plan established by the legislature, approved by the Florida Supreme Court, and implemented as soon as possible to avoid any future substantial reapportionment litigation in the federal court system. In our view, the exception provision was intended as a means to implement a fair reapportionment plan at the earliest possible date. Backed by the history, the language of the exception clause, in our opinion, clearly and unambiguously refers to elections following reapportionment of the Florida Legislature. We find that, although the first portion of section 15(a) of article III provides for staggered terms of four years for senators, the exception clause in the last sentence clearly allows for the truncating of the four-year terms of office following each reapportionment of the legislature as necessary to implement the new reapportionment plan. The 1967 legislature was very familiar with truncated terms. In oral argument, the question was asked whom the holdover senators would represent if they were allowed to continue in office until 1984. In the words of the attorney general, upon approval of this apportionment plan, each holdover senator would represent the electorate in his or her new district. Counsel for the senate also agreed that holdover senators would be representing the new districts. The new apportionment plan changes the geographic lines and constituencies of every senate district, and there have been substantial changes in boundaries brought about because of the political change from multi-member districts to single-member districts. The constituency of the existing single-member districts has been significantly altered. Whole counties have been shifted from one district to another district. Ten entire counties would, under the new plan, be represented by holdover senators in a different district. [6] The principle that holdover senators represent the newly drawn geographic districts requires us to answer the question of how a senator elected from a former district apportioned in 1972 would meet the requirement of section 1, article III. That section mandates that the senate be composed of one senator elected from each senatorial district. Given this provision, it necessarily follows that, since none of the senate districts from which senators were elected in 1980 are preserved intact (because all senate districts have been changed by the new apportionment plan), no senators elected in 1980 were in fact elected from the senatorial district which they now propose they should represent. In our view, the senators could be deemed elected from those districts only if they had been elected from the specific districts set forth in the 1982 apportionment plan. By this, we mean that their specific districts, from which they were elected in 1980, had not been changed geographically by the 1982 plan. We do agree that when a senate district is carried forward with no geographic change in boundary lines, article III, section 1, is satisfied, and there is no need to implement the exception provision of section 15(a). On the other hand, where, as in the instant case, all senate districts have been changed, we conclude that our constitution requires all senators to stand for election in order to be elected from the new districts. We feel it is important to note that, not only were all the districts geographically changed, there was also a basic political change. The 1972 apportionment plan was composed almost entirely of multi-member senate districts, while the 1982 apportionment plan, submitted for our approval, is composed entirely of single-member senate districts. This is a major political change that substantially affects the political process. This type of major political change was not involved or a factor in the equal protection cases cited by the senate and the attorney general to justify holdover terms to maintain continuity in office as a justifiable temporary delay in reapportionment implementation. Although our decision is not based on Fourteenth Amendment equal protection grounds, this political change could be a significant distinguishing, and even controlling, factor. In summary, we conclude that section 1 of article III mandates that senators be elected from the districts they represent, and, although section 15(a) of article III provides for staggered terms of four years for senators, requiring elections at two-year intervals, the clause in the last sentence of section 15(a) provides expressly for the truncating of four-year terms of office following each reapportionment of the legislature as they are necessary to implement the new reapportionment plan and to reinstate staggered terms during the ten-year apportionment period. We emphasize that we find that the use of the phrase at the election next following reapportionment clearly indicates that the terms of even or odd districts may be truncated following an apportionment when the geographic lines and constituencies of the district are changed. This provision, in our view, was intended to prevent delay in the implementation of reapportionment and negates the contention that there should be a delay in the implementation of apportionment for one-half the senate to allow continuity. In view of our construction of the Florida Constitution, we need not address Fourteenth Amendment equal protection arguments.