Court Opinion

ID: 9675065
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:41:05.968676+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:31.211169
License: Public Domain

*755WATERMAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in denying relief to the complainants.
I believe we must follow the majority result in Colegrove v. Green, 328 U.S. 549, 66 S.Ct. 1198, 90 L.Ed. 1432 (1946). Whether we deny relief by adopting the rationale of the three Justices who labeled apportionment matters “political questions” or by adopting that of Mr. Justice Rutledge who thought the Court should decline to exercise its equity jurisdiction, the result in the present case is the same —a dismissal of the complaint without reaching the merits because the issues are “not meet for adjudication.” Frankfurter, J., in Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339, 346, 81 S.Ct. 125, 5 L.Ed.2d 110 (1960), explaining the decision in Colegrove v. Green.
My colleagues deny relief after having taken jurisdiction of the case. I do not quarrel directly with them, but because I believe this litigation is not justiciable I think it appropriate to point out the admonition of Mr. Justice Frankfurter relative to “jurisdiction” stated by him in Colegrove.
“We are of the opinion that the petitioners ask of this Court what is beyond its competence to grant. This is one of those demands on judicial power which cannot be met by verbal fencing about ‘jurisdiction.’ It must be resolved by considerations on the basis of which this Court, from time to time, has refused to intervene in controversies. It has refused to do so because due regard for the effective working of our Government revealed this issue to be of a peculiarly political nature and therefore not meet for judicial determination.”
Judge LEVET also recognizes that Colegrove may require us to dismiss this case for lack of justiciability. I concur in this part of his opinion. I cannot concur in his full opinion, however, for I think it unnecessary and undesirable at this time to pass on the justiciability of this or similar future litigation in the event that Colegrove v. Green should cease to be controlling authority, and I do not think it appropriate for me to express any views with reference to whether the present legislative apportionment in the State of New York violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Therefore, inasmuch as the plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, I concur with my colleagues in dismissing the complaint.