Court Opinion

ID: 9733835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:18:29.440837+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:28:35.346601
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GARMAN, also dissenting: Today this court comes remarkably close to sounding the death knell to the constitutional requirement of compactness. The majority concludes that “on visual observation, the compactness of the districts formed under the plan before us today is not discernibly different from the compactness of the districts established under the plan approved by this court 10 years ago in People ex rel. Burris v. Ryan, 147 Ill. 2d 270, 296 (1992). While some of the new districts are certainly more elongated than others, the same was true of districts drawn under the old map. Overall, the level of compactness has changed little.” 198 Ill. 2d at 237. This court may have eliminated the compactness requirement altogether. The Illinois Constitution of 1970 mandates that legislative and representative districts “be compact, contiguous and substantially equal in population.” Ill. Const. 1970, art. IV § 3(a). While the compactness requirement may be subservient to the requirement of equality of population, it “cannot be ignored[,] *** written out or replaced by another requirement short of redrafting or amending our present constitution.” Schrage v. State Board of Elections, 88 Ill. 2d 87, 96 (1981). Surely, the legislature is capable of drawing a redistricting plan in which the districts meet all four requirements noted by the majority in that they have substantially equal population, provide fairness to minorities, are compact, and meet all legal requirements regarding political fairness. See People ex rel. Burris v. Ryan, 147 Ill. 2d 270, 296 (1992) (Ryan II). The compactness requirement, along with the other requirements of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, ensures “fair and effective representation for all citizens.” Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 565-66, 12 L. Ed. 2d 506, 529, 84 S. Ct. 1362, 1383 (1964). Compactness guards against political gerrymandering and facilitates constituent-representative communication. Schrage, 88 Ill. 2d at 96, 100. In upholding the constitutionality of the Commission’s redistricting plan against plaintiffs’ and plaintiff intervenors’ compactness challenge, the majority fails even to define the term “compact,” which this court has previously defined as meaning “ ‘closely united, territorially.’ ” Schrage, 88 Ill. 2d at 95, quoting People ex rel. Woodyatt v. Thompson, 155 Ill. 451, 478 (1895). At the very least, certain districts in the Commission’s redistricting plan appear, on their face, to violate the compactness standard of article IV section 3(a), of the 1970 Illinois Constitution. For example, Legislative District 51, which contains Representative Districts 101 and 102, is an extremely elongated L-shaped district that extends from Macon County in central Illinois to the metro east suburbs of St. Louis in Madison and St. Clair Counties. Plaintiff characterizes this district as a “meandering stream,” and the Attorney General concedes that the 51st Legislative District is “probably the closest visual approximation to a classic gerrymander.” Further, Legislative District 51 ignores communities of interest by joining urban and rural areas with vastly different and divergent concerns. Although I am aware that this court must determine the validity of the Commission’s plan standing alone, I note that plaintiff interveners, in their alternate redistricting plan, have taken the counties included in the Commission’s Legislative District 51 (Moultrie, Bond, parts of Macon, Shelby, Fayette, Effingham, Clinton, Madison, and St. Clair Counties), and divided them, along with other counties, into two legislative districts that are substantially more compact. Both Legislative District 51 in the Commission’s plan, and the plaintiff interveners’ legislative districts, have zero population deviation.1 Although I recognize that partisan politics plays a role in the redistricting process, article iy section 3, of the 1970 Constitution is intended to constrain the political impulse. It is possible, despite its political nature, for the Redistricting Commission to submit a map that meets all constitutional requirements. As Justice Clark aptly noted in his 1992 dissent: “while politics and political considerations unfortunately have had more than a subtle influence on [the 1991] proposed map, the resulting analysis conducted by this court must set aside the partisan and special interest bickering and stress the mandate of our State Constitution that the legislative and representative ‘[districts shall be compact, contiguous, and substantially equal in population.’” Ryan II, 147 Ill. 2d at 306 (Clark, J., dissenting), quoting Ill. Const. 1970, art. IV § 3(a). Representative District 114 also appears, on its face, to violate the compactness requirement. It is a bizarrely drawn U-shaped district that substantially wraps around Representative District 113. Similarly, Representative District 100 wraps around the 99th Representative District on three sides. Clearly, these districts were severely gerrymandered. These districts are just a few of the problematic districts in the Commission’s redistricting plan. As indicated in Justice Thomas’ dissent and as demonstrated by a single cursory glance at the Commission’s plan, it is clear this list is not exhaustive. The majority opinion also fails to address the larger problem that pervades legislative redistricting in the State of Illinois. The process that gave rise to this redistricting plan is fundamentally flawed. Plaintiff intervenors, in both their brief and oral argument, contend that the Commission failed to provide meaningful analysis or discussion of proposed amendments to the redistricting plan which resulted in the creation of the Commission’s final plan. In 1991, in People ex rel. Burns v. Ryan, 147 Ill. 2d 270 (1991) (Ryan I), this court remanded the redistricting proposal to the Commission based on its perception that to affirm the proceedings of the Commission would “circumvent the spirit and purpose of the Illinois Constitution.” Ryan I, 147 Ill. 2d at 285. Despite defendants’ arguments to the contrary, the 2001 Redistricting Commission proceedings appear fraught with similar procedural vacuity. Prior to the adoption of the Commission’s final plan, entitled Currie II, alternate plans were before the Commission. In fact, a feasible alternate plan is before this court. As in 1991, it appears that the 2001 final plan was proposed and passed within a 24-hour period. In addition, plaintiff intervenors assert that the proceedings included surprise expert witnesses, witness lists were kept secret, meaningful cross-examination was thwarted, and findings of fact and conclusions of.law were minimized. Defenders of the Commission’s map contend that ample evidence supported the findings of the Commission. However, after-the-fact rationalization regarding alleged “swing districts” or thin assertions of communities of interest within proposed districts do little to bring the process back in line with the constitutional principles from which it has strayed. Apparently, it is implied that once the name is drawn to determine which party shall have the tie-breaking vote on the Commission, the process is, for all intents and purposes, complete. See Ill. Const. 1970, art. IV § 3(b). The intimation is that the losing party should resign itself to the fact that it is out of the process and that partisanship takes precedent. However, “[a]n artificially weighted map may ensure a political party’s dominance of a legislative body for a decade or more, but it does not ensure that a citizen’s right to elect officials who will represent him effectively is protected.” Ryan II, 147 Ill. 2d at 307 (Clark, J., dissenting). In any action involving redistricting, much more is at stake than simply who will control the legislature for the next 10 years. “If any fundamental principle underlies our American system of government, it is the notion that government exists only to serve the governed.” Ryan II, 147 Ill. 2d at 307 (Clark, J., dissenting). Today, that fundamental principle is dealt a serious blow. A redistricting plan approved and filed by the Commission is presumed to be valid. Ill. Const. 1970, art. IV § 3(b); Schrage, 88 Ill. 2d at 92. However, the procedures that resulted in the approval of this plan should not be open to the same presumption. Deference to the Commission’s findings does not equate to blind adherence to its final product. Therefore, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s opinion and recommend that this plan be remanded to the Redistricting Commission for further action with instructions to submit a map that meets all constitutional requirements, including compactness, and to carry forth its duties in a fair and meaningful manner. JUSTICE THOMAS joins in this dissent.  Although defendant and defendant intervenors stress the fact that the Commission’s map achieves exact population equality plus one person in some districts, this is not constitutionally mandated. This court noted in Schrage that deviations in population equality are permitted to accommodate the interests of political subdivisions and to provide for compact districts. Schrage, 88 Ill. 2d at 104. There is a need to consider other interests to “obviate the potential for gerrymandering present in blind adherence to the standard of equality of population. Gerrymandering can be as invidious as malapportionment of population in depriving voters of an equal voice in choosing their representatives. The goal of ‘one man, one vote’ cannot be achieved without eliminating the use of the gerrymandering as a device to dilute group voting strength.” Schrage, 88 Ill. 2d at 105, citing J. Edwards, The Gerrymander and “One Man, One Vote,” 46 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 879 (1971).