Court Opinion

ID: 9551750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:58:36.427912+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:29.108223
License: Public Domain

BRYSON, J.,
specially concurring.
I specially concur in the majority opinion of Mr. Justice Denecke. The majority opinion states: “* * * however, the plan impliedly affects the residency requirement” and leaves a hiatus as to where legislators must live at the time of election to office. Art IV, Section 6, does not authorize this court to proceed to interpret and decide the residency requirements of a Senator or Representative in this proceeding. That has been decided by the people in adopting Art IV, Section 8, which reads as follows:
“No person shall be a Senator, or Representa*169tive who at the time of his election is not a citizen of the United States; nor anyone who has not been for one year, next preceeding (sic) his election an inhabitant of the county, or district whence he may be chosen. Senators and Bepresentatives shall be at least twenty one years of age.”
Thus, a Senator or Bepresentative can be “an inhabitant of the county, or district whence he may be chosen.”
It may well be that it is desirable for the legislator to “be an inhabitant of the district,” but that is not what Section 8 of Art IV provides. That matter is not before us in deciding an apportionment plan. This can be decided at the proper time by the people or indirectly by the legislature, pursuant to subdistricting power provided in Sections 3 and 7 of Art IV (See OBS 171.043), or by a proper proceeding.