Court Opinion

ID: 9537567
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:20:00.478135+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:56:47.888766
License: Public Domain

MATTHEWS, Justice,
concurring.
I am in complete agreement with the majority opinion. I write separately to make several observations concerning the conclusion that Cordova may not be included in District 2.
First. The primary error of the reapportionment board was to equate socio-economic integration with socio-economic homogeneity. In the reapportionment plan the board consistently refers to the integration requirement as one of homogeneity.1 The concepts are by no means synonymous. Integration connotes interaction and connectedness, while homogeneity refers to similarity or uniformity. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1085, 1174 (1965). Thus, while it is possible to say that Cordo-va, a town which is economically dependent on commercial fishing, is in a sense homogeneous with the commercial fishing towns on Prince of Wales Island in southeastern Alaska, 700 miles and two time zones away, it is in no sense correct to say that Cordova is integrated with those communities. By contrast, a fishing community may not be homogeneous with a neighboring community having a different economic base, but the two can be considered to be integrated because of trade, transportation, and social links.2
Second. The compactness requirement of article YI, section 6 of the Alaska Constitution also mandates the conclusion that Cor-dova may not be included in District 2.
Article VI, section 6 provides that each new election district
shall be formed of contiguous and compact territory containing as nearly as practicable a relatively integrated socioeconomic area.
“Compact” in the sense used here means having a small perimeter in relation to the area encompassed. Black’s Law Dictionary 351 (4th ed. 1968). The most compact shape is a circle. Since it is not possible to divide Alaska into circles, it is obvious that the constitution calls only for relative compactness. But this does not mean that the compactness requirement is without substantive content. Where there are two or more districts in a given area they can be compared on compactness grounds with other possible districts encompassing the same area.3 A New Jersey court has stated:
Although the impact of the compactness directive cannot be precisely stated, we believe that the word itself can be given meaningful content. Webster's Third New International Dictionary *1219(1966) defines “compact” as “marked by concentration in a limited area.” Technically, we interpret the requirement of compactness to mean that between two districts of equal area the one with the smaller perimeter is the more compact. A somewhat similar idea was projected by counsel for the Apportionment Commission at the oral argument — that the objective of compactness could be determined by drawing a circle around each of the proposed districts. Those districts which occupy relatively greater areas within the circle could be said to be more compact....
We recognize that the constitutional mandate to draw districts equal in their number of inhabitants may conflict with the mandate for compactness and that the former is paramount. Compactness is undoubtedly a material factor, however, when the choice of districting plans includes one yielding bizarre designs.... This is particularly so where compact districts may be drawn with a minimal increase in population deviation.
Davenport v. Apportionment Commission of the State of New Jersey, 124 N.J.Super. 30, 304 A.2d 736, 743 (App.Div.1973) (citations omitted), modified, 63 N.J. 433, 308 A.2d 3 (1973), aff’d 65 N.J. 125, 319 A.2d 718 (1974).
In no sense is District 2 compact. It runs some 700 miles from its southeasternmost to its northwesternmost points. It is shaped roughly like two extended arms, each with a shoulder, connected in the middle not by a head and torso, but by a narrow ligament which threads its way between Districts 3 and 4. The impossibility of considering District 2 to be relatively compact is evident merely from looking at the map.4
Third. Southeastern Alaska, a distinct geographical region of this state, will sustain six seats in the House of Representatives without making an extended reach into southcentral Alaska to include Cordo-va. This court has twice held that stretching a southeastern election district to include Cordova would violate the compactness requirement.
In Egan v. Hammond, 502 P.2d 856 (Alaska 1972) the master’s report observed the following with respect to the possibility of the inclusion of Cordova in a southeastern district in order to cure the overrepresentation in the Ketchikan District:
It is not feasible to reach beyond the southeast region because of the clear separation of the region from the balance of Alaska (the air miles from the northwestern-most population in the region at Ya-kutat to the nearest population in south-central region, Cordova, is 225 miles).
Id. at 892. This court, in adopting the master’s plan, came to the same conclusion, stating:
The Ketchikan House and Senate districts vary from the norms by -22.5%. Within the time available the Court was unable to reduce substantially this variance and still meet the mandate of the Alaska Constitution requiring a district of contiguous and compact territory containing as nearly as practicable a relatively integrated socio-economic area. A more extensive explanation of the variance is available in the Master’s Report (pages 892 through 897, supra).
Id. at 928 n. 2.
In Groh v. Egan, 526 P.2d 863 (Alaska 1974), we concluded that the State had justified a population deviation of greater than 10% with respect to two southeastern Alaska districts on the grounds that the only alternative thereto would be extending a southeastern district to include Cordova. We stated:
With reference to the Juneau and Wrangell-Petersburg areas, the Board was confronted with the difficult problem of juggling the more contiguous, compact, relatively integrated socio-economic areas of Southeast Alaska without extending a substantial distance into an unrelated area separated by immense natural barriers. Yakutat, the northwestern-most settlement in Southeast Alaska, which is *1220itself separated by great distance from the other communities in the region, is 225 air miles from the nearest population center in the Southcentral region, Cordo-va. There are valid considerations both historically and geographically for not endeavoring to span that gap.
Id. at 879.
Currently there is no better reason than there was in 1972 or 1974 for including Cordova in a southeastern Alaska district because, as previously noted, southeastern Alaska taken alone is entitled to its present six members in the House of Representatives.
Fourth. It is useful for illustrative purposes to refer to Justice Compton’s assumption that some part of suburban Juneau might be taken from District 4 and added to District 2.5 Justice Compton points out that this new district would not be “more soeio-economically integrated than the area produced by linking Cordova with the southeast communities of Yakutat and Haines.” Although I believe that this conclusion is clearly wrong for the reasons stated by the majority opinion, and because Juneau and Haines have been in the same .house district for many years,6 let us assume that it is true. The new district thus created would necessarily be constitutionally preferred to the existing district because while both districts would be rated as equal in terms of socio-economic integration, the new district would be superior to the existing district in terms of compactness.7 The same conclusion can be drawn with respect to any logical alternative method of dis-tricting southeastern Alaska.
Fifth. In a broad sense gerrymandering is dividing an area into political units in an unnatural way with the purpose of bestowing advantages on some and thus disadvantaging others. See Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 952 (1966). The compactness and integration requirements were designed to prevent gerrymandering.8 The intent to gerrymander may be very difficult to prove, especially if the objective was one other than to benefit the political party in power.9 However, if the compactness and integration requirements are observed, the opportunities to gerrymander are quite limited. It is therefore preferable both on constitutional and practical grounds to insist on the observation of those requirements rather than to require, as Justice Compton would, proof of an intent to gerrymander as a prerequisite to a finding of a constitutional violation.
*1221APPENDIX

. The plan has two sections discussing the requirements of art. VI, § 6 of the Alaska Constitution. The first is appropriately titled “Compactness and Contiguity;” the second is inappropriately, but revealingly, titled “Socio-Eco-nomic Homogeneity.” Reapportionment Plan at 13-14.

. In political theory terms homogeneity may be a distinctly undesirable basis on which to draw district lines, for the representative of a stable majority interest group has no need to listen to other views. Note, Political Gerrymandering: A Statutory Compactness Standard as an Antidote for Judicial Impotence, 41 U.Chi.L.Rev. 398, 400-404, 414-415 (1974).

.See Schwartzburg, Reapportionment, Gerrymanders, and the Notion of “Compactness,” 50 Minn.L.Rev. 443^46 (1966).

. See Appendix.

. By using this example I do not mean to imply that such an adjustment would necessarily reflect a logical, or constitutional, apportionment.

. Indeed we noted in Groh v. Egan the close ties between Juneau and Haines:
The Board, however, presented a rational basis for not severing Skagway and Haines from the [Juneau] district, ... There are close transportation ties between Juneau, Haines and Skagway by daily scheduled air flights and frequent ferry service; a Juneau-Haines highway connection has been planned. The district is quite distinct from the rest of the Southeast region by virtue of the nature of its development and the fact that it is almost entirely composed of portions of the mainland, rather than the islands of the archipelago; historically the three communities have always been closely linked, with Juneau serving as an economic hub for Haines and Skagway.
526 P.2d at 879.

. This conclusion is based on the assumption that the goals of compactness and socio-eco-nomic integration stand on an equal footing in our constitution. At least as a textual matter, compactness seems to have priority, for the constitution commands first that each district be contiguous and compact and then, in selecting among possible contiguous and compact districts, those containing as nearly as practicable a relatively integrated socio-economic area are to be preferred. Further, the compactness requirement is not modified by “as nearly as practicable” or “relatively” while the requirement of socio-economic integration is.

. 3 Proceedings of the Alaska Constitutional Convention 1846 (Jan. 11, 1956).

. See Note, Political Gerrymandering: A Statutory Compactness Standard as an Antedote for Judicial Impotence, 41 U.Chi.L.Rev. at 406-411 (1974).