Court Opinion

ID: 9791541
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:13:24.03928+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:36.816149
License: Public Domain

ERWIN, Justice
(dissenting).
While 1 agree that the revised reapportionment plan meets federal constitutional standards, I am unable to agree with the majority’s conclusion that it meets the requirements of Alaska’s Constitution. In my opinion, the revised plan includes districts which do not comply with the mandate of article VI, section 6, of the Alaska Constitution.
Whatever the merits of the retreat from precise mathematical equality evident in recent reapportionment decisions of the United States Supreme Court, we should not lose sight of the fundamental principle involved in reapportionment — truly representative government where the interests of the people are reflected in their elected legislators. Inherent in the concept of geographical legislative districts is a recognition that areas of a state differ economically, socially and culturally and that a truly representative government exists only when those areas of the state which share significant common interests are able to elect legislators representing those interests. Thus, the goal of reapportionment should not only be to achieve numerical equality but also to assure representation of those areas of the state having common interests.
If we were constrained solely by numbers, Alaska could obviously be divided into any given number of equally populated districts without regard to other considerations. Such a result would satisfy all federal constitutional requirements but would hardly be consistent with traditional notions of representative government, for it would inevitably lead to absurd combinations of historical, social, economic and geographical boundaries within the state. Fortunately, Alaska’s Constitution commands that :*
Each new district so created shall be formed of- contiguous and compact territory containing as nearly as practicable a relatively integrated socio-economic area.1 Thus, it only is within this framework that equally populated election districts may be constructed. If the search for equal representation is not undertaken within the limits of this constraint, then the underlying rationale for geographical election districts is destroyed.
In my view, the revised plan includes a number of house districts with respect to which the command of article VI, section 6, of the Alaska Constitution was sacrificed in the interest of numerical equality. For example, Fort Greely was included within the Fairbanks District, although it lies over 100 road miles from metropolitan Fairbanks and is located outside of the North Star Borough. Even more objectionable, however, is the fact that Big Delta and Delta Junction, which are five and ten miles respectively closer to Fairbanks along the only highway linking the two areas, were excluded. Many of the dependents of Fort Greely military personnel live, work, and attend school in these communities. If the Big Delta-Delta Junction-Fort Greely community is not a “relatively integrated socio-economic area,” it is hard to imagine what is.
There is a similar problem with the addition to the Nome district of the communities of Selawik and Kiana, which are both located near Kotzebue. It is abundantly clear that the Board took this action solely to achieve equality of numbers,2 for there are no ethnic or commercial ties between these communities and the Nome area and they are separated from Nome by mountains and Kotzebue Sound. In addition, both communities have transportation, economic, and ethnic ties with Kotzebue, not Nome; and, while Kotzebue is part of the same native corporation, Nome is not. In view of all these factors — which lie at the *891very heart of the concept of socio-economic integration — I fail to discern how such a combination could possibly satisfy article VI, section 6, of the Alaska Constitution.3
Yet another example of this failure to comply with the mandate of the Alaska Constitution lies in the Anchorage area. The Anchorage-West district comprising portions of the downtown area, Inlet View, the South Addition, Turnagain, International Airport, Sand Lake, and Jewell Lake, includes a diversity of area residents which range from the most urban in Anchorage to the most rural.4 Further, the district includes no less than four separate service areas — the City of Anchorage, the Spenard Public Utility District, the Sand Lake Service Area, and the Greater Anchorage Area Borough. In my mind, such a district, which includes as many diverse elements as could conceivably be combined within the Anchorage area, is not a “relatively integrated socio-economic area.”
These major miscombinations, along with the short-lived Seldovia-Bristol Bay marriage disapproved by the majority, demonstrate the real tyranny of numbers, for they are products of an effort to achieve mathematical equality by shifting about population centers without regard to socio-economic considerations. By making small numerical adjustments to satisfy federal constitutional standards, the board dismembered important socio-economic communities in violation of Alaska constitutional standards.
In my view, major readjustments on a statewide basis are required if the plan is to meet minumum state and federal constitutional standards. The revised plan demonstrates all too clearly that such adjustments cannot be made in a matter of days under pressure of preparations for an imminent election, for a hastily conceived change correcting a minor deficiency in one district often causes major deficiencies in other districts. As a result, rather than improving the plan, such changes only serve to make it less likely to assure truly representative government.
I sympathize with the majority’s desire to end this court’s unsatisfactory and con-troversal intrusions into the political thicket of reapportionment. However, regardless of how reluctant we may be to confront this problem, it nevertheless remains our constitutional duty to the people of Alaska to assure a truly representative government. In my opinion, this goal cannot be achieved by making minor adjustments in the present plan. Because the interim plan had far smaller variances in population and unquestionably respected geographical and socio-economic considerations, I would have continued it in effect for the 1974 elections and remanded the revised plan back to the Board to comply with the mandate of the Alaska Constitution. It is better to err on the side of caution than to perpetuate mistakes for the balance of this decade.

. Alaska Const, art. VI, § 6.

. The state conceded at oral argument that all the changes made in the revised plan were made solely to meet numerical requirements of the United States Constitution.

. Separation by mountains and an expanse of water, lack of direct transportation and communication links, and borough boundaries were all factors which the majority cited as justifying severance of the Seldovia area from the Bristol Bay district. I cannot understand why the presence of the same factors dividing tlie Selawik-Kiana area from the Nome area does not compel a similar conclusion.

. The board made a point of its desire to avoid diluting the rural vote with the urban vote in tlie Fairbanks area. No rational reason has been shown for not following a similar course of action in the Anchorage area.