Court Opinion

ID: 9580783
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:08:52.01791+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:31.681579
License: Public Domain

*519Justice TIMMONS-GOODSON
dissenting.
I join the Chief Justice’s dissent. Furthermore, I write separately to express my concern that in overriding our legislature’s decisions in order to impose a bright-line rule, the majority has given insufficient deference to the legislature’s considered judgment. As the Supreme Court of the United States has stated, “The function of the legislature is primary, its exercises fortified by presumptions of right and legality, and is not to be interfered with lightly, nor by any judicial conception of their wisdom or propriety.” Weems v. United States, 217 U.S. 349, 379, 30 S. Ct. 544, 554, 54 L. Ed. 793, 803 (1910). “ ‘[I]n a democratic society legislatures, not courts, are constituted to respond to the will and consequently the moral values of the people.’ ” Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 175-76, 96 S. Ct. 2909, 2926, 49 L. Ed. 2d 859, 876 (1976) (judgment of the court and opinion of Stewart, Powell & Stevens, JJ.) (alteration in original) (quoting Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 383, 92 S. Ct. 2726, 2800-01, 33 L. Ed. 2d 346, 432, (1972) (Burger, C. J., Blackmun, Powell & Rehnquist, JJ., dissenting)).
Since the majority’s calculus does not appear to appropriately factor in the legislature’s role in the districting process, and the deference due it, I respectfully dissent.