Court Opinion

ID: 9757524
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:44:42.637499+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:40.594647
License: Public Domain

*855LAYTON, District Judge
(concurring).
I agree with the majority that Senate Bills 332 and 336 are unconstitutional. In so doing, however, I base my conclusion upon the 29% variation between the populations of the 28th Representative District in Kent County as compared with the 34th Representative District in Sussex County, and the 33% variation between the populations of the 6th Senatorial District in Rural New Castle County and the 13th Senatorial District in Kent County. Such wide deviations in population, in the absence of a satisfactory explanation, are not permissible under the Equal Protection Clause of the federal Constitution. Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 568, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed. 2d 506. Nor should the conclusion here reached be taken as indicating that, aside from the districts specifically mentioned, deviations between the populations of a number of other districts are to be regarded as having my approval. I merely prefer to rest my decision on the narrower grounds above stated.
Turning now to the question of gerrymandering, I cannot say that it presents a constitutional issue. In the first place, I think it unnecessary even to consider the question at this point for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that we have already declared the plan unconstitutional on other grounds. Alma Motor Co. v. Timken-Detroit Axle Co., 329 U.S. 129, 67 S.Ct. 231, 91 L.Ed. 128. Moreover, while the Supreme Court has declared reapportionment to be a constitutional issue, it has not spoken on the question of gerrymandering. And until it does, it is my view that this important question should continue to be treated by the lower courts as a political, not a constitutional, issue. See the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Harlan in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. at 590, 84 S.Ct. at 1396.