Secti6ruii LEGISLATURES and 1. Legislative Organization And

J " / •i -^ \ •\ - -r •7' \- •/ / .1 %• l.y. .' . S-ir- • :•/••. / \ 'fi;-.- Secti6ruII ;>-•.; •» / u- LEGISLATURES AND * !• 1. Legislative Organization and bervices ••'•.'* '''.y''•/ "•'..••••• "^. • •'-•-. -'.•'•• 2. Legislation ; w <• ', N X r •^ I ^ < • \: V. ^-^^ •H '-^. t. .-^f^ **• > ^ r \\ : fi ';- V >»» fp • \' / -.. I • i L <-^ .• 1*- 'N •^ / /\ *,)•'.; 1 ../ • ^ r T.- / \> . :^p • i :'^ ...) •« •• * • ,'' > •i^ :. 5-^ \ • ^ ••••:• .-^ y: " •..:;.. I K .• V. ' >• • ' • •' ^ • 1 • . •...••. Legislative Organization arid Services k— • • ' " 1'' .• .-.'•. " ' •-,.,.•' .. .., ^ • )> , f ^• . ~~~' • ' • • , ^ •• • • . ~ .''••"' • • ''•' .'• • • •' ' ' •• • . ^ STRUCTURE AND PR(!)(iEbURES BY HERBERt'L. WiLTSEE* . URING the 1960-61 biennium,intey- I tures; they provide for popular election at est in steps to improve our Vtate I frequent intervals of those wh6.comprise D legislatures reached new heights, i the legislatives bodies; arid except ifi Ne-' Those who compose the law-making ^braska they have established two-house bodies developed'/and adopted new'pro- 'legislatures. Beyond these common ele- cedufal arrangements and service tacil- ments, a wide yariet'y of constitutional pities; at the same time, those outsidq of • and statutory provMpris, rules and,prece- the legislatures in many states became in- dents govern jthe workings of the. legis- creasingly vocal in their demands for fur- latures. ' ( ther change, especially as regards appor tionment ; / , SIZE AND TERMS J The Committee on "Legislative Proc- In'.size.Amefic^n state legislatiir,es , esses 2itm Procedures of the NationalJLeg- range)from a total of forty-ihi'ee rnembers islatiye Conference observed in its^nal in the Nebraska unicameral tojl24 in New report in April, 1961: "In recent years the" Hampshire, The smallest bicameral legis-. people liave come to reialize, in increasing lature is that of Delaware, with fifty-two degree, tiiat the capacity of state govern- members. Senates vary from seveateen ments to meet die demands placed upon members each in Delaware and Nevada * them . requires die unshackling "of^ to sixty-seven in Minnesota. The range in the legislatures." The committee com- lower ltoi®es*^s greater—frdm thirty-five mended ". the tremendous efEorts members in Delaware-, forty in Alaska, made and substantial progress recorded and forty-seven in Nevada up to 240 in by our state legislatures in the past gener- Massaûsetts, 246 in {Vermont, 294 in ' ation, particularly since World War II, in Connecticut, and 400 in New Hampshire, equipping themselves/or better perform- The ratio of Senate to House members ance of their tasks''; but. witlêspect to averages about one to three or four, but the representativeness of numerous legis- this, too, varies widely^ in Idaho têre are latures, the committee was "forced to die forty-four Senators to fifty-nine Represen- conclusioi], that the continued flouting of /jtatives, in New Hampshire twenty-four constitutional apportioiiment requife- Senators to 400 Representatives, ments will gieatly prejudice the confi- ^With one. excepyon, in Connecticut, den(;e of the people in thie processes of only minor changes in the sizes of legisla- state government." tures have been made d^dngj.|i£. 196(^1 Our state constitutions vest the su- biennium. Lower lôuses were increiKed -prerae law-making power in the legisla-' in Connecticut from 249 to 294 member's, *v,„ ,.T,u,„„ • n:,.„^,^^'t ,ur, <:^.,ft,»v« nm^^ in Louisiana-from 101 to 105, in Minne- ^Mr. Wiltsee IS Director of the Southern Olnce' :. ,„, ^n- v-i i • r\TL- - of*Thc Council of State Governments and Secrc- SOta from |dl to 135; while the Ohio taryôf the National Lcgiijative Conference. Senate was increased to . 38 members to • " - • •• • 33 ,. •••:••••-•.. • •• 34 THE-BiOOK OF TUE STATES provide certain districts with additional agency designated by the constitution to representation for a liiennium. Florida reapportiorji In thirty-thre'e states, theleg- voters.in November, 1962, will consider a , islatures possess this pow.ef exclusively, reapportionment amendment which although^ the tfend is away' from this would add a total of sixteen members, to practice. -. ^ • • .' the House and Senate. Seven«states, with the additic^n of North .In all states, legislative terms ameither -Dakota in the past biennium, provide al- two-°)'ears or four. Senators in thirty-five' ternative reapportionment procedures, if^ states serve for four years;îh fifteen (in- the legislature fails to act": California, Illi- cluding. the Nebraska unicameral)- they nois„ Michigan.ôrth Dako'ta, Oregah, serve for two. Shorter terms are the rule Soutn Dakota and Texas. Jn addition, for members of lower houses. In forty-five , Washington provides for reapportion- states House membefs serve two-year | ment by initiative as well as^by legislative terms; only in Alabama, Louisiana, Mary action. ' . I ; ^ lapd'sand^ Mississippi do they have four- Another group of s.even states—New^ year iterrns. Changes in these basic ar Jersey having been add^d in J961-^piaGes rangements are infrequent. the reapportioning power in i'noh-legisla- Cali&)rnia voters in 1960 rejected a tive* hands. Alaska rejies on an Appor- * > four-year term for As/emblymen; the fol tionment Board; Arizona,'which has no lowing year the Nevada legislature ini-.' constitutional'provision for Senate reap tially approved an amendment, which re- portioriment, obtains House redistrictine quires approval by the 1963 session before through County Boards of Supervisor^ the popular vot6, to increase terms in the Arkansas redistricts its House (the Senate' lower house to four years and iA th'e Sen districts are frozen) through a Boarer,of ate from four to six years, both on a stag Apportionment; Hawaii is redistrict^^ by ~ gered basis. A staggered basis was ap ,the Governor; Missouri's iHtouse *is/reap- proved by voteys in 1960 for New Mexico portioned by the Secretary of St^te an^ Senators, who already served four-year local governing bodies, the Senate by a tenns. Study committees of the Georgia commission appointed l^X. die GovernorT' and Tennessee legislatures considered and Ohid redistrictsJjy actiion of the Gov- steps to eliminate "rotational agr^- pernorj Auditor and SecreiaiT/^f State. In ments," the arrangeiment by which V^ New Jersey, a permjanent! apportionment multi-county district permits one county procedure for the lower hpuse v/as enacted to "elect" a legislator for one term while in late January, 1961, to/meet the state the other county "elects" a legislator for Supreme Court's deadline for action in the next term. " ! Ashiiry Park Press, Inctv Wgolley (161 Atl; 2d 705, de,cided June 6, ^960). This KEAPPORTIONME.NT adjf sets up mathematical formulas for di- No aspect of the legislative process in vftling the sixty seals among'the twcfnty- the past biennium has been more the sub one counties following each federal c^cen- ject of attention by press, public and legis nial census, and charges the GtDfcrnor and lators than has apportionment. The prqb- Secretary of Stat^ with making and im- lem is two-fold—first, one of obtaining rni plementing findings and certifications at equitalDlei and acceptable pattern of repre- ten-year intervals. North Carolina will be sentation for each of the houses; second, added to tlws/ôup if the voters in No of assuring periodic reapportionment in vember, 1902, approve a constitutional accordance with the agreed pattern. amendment submitted to thera|'which As indicated in the table "Apportion gives thCySpeaker of the House exclusive ment of Legislatures," provisions relating responsibility for reapport^^ng that to this subject appear m the constitution body fjallowing each decennial census. of every state. 1^ forty-eight states—all ex The reapportioning will apply only to cept Delaware and Maryland—the consti twenty of the 120 House seats, since the tutions also contain provisions relating to remainder are allotted to tlie 100 ^Nqrth periodip reapportionment. In the great •Carolina counties. \ majority of states, the legislature is the /Eighteen states during the 1960-^1 ^ • • • ' . LEGISLATURES AND LEGISLATION .,. I '*"-•.- ^ ' \ •'•.'•''" '•'••'•,- ' • • • ' biennium obtained some form of reap-' most 220,000 signatures (62 p,er cent more portionment; an additional eighteen pro- ^ than required) designed to* amend the vided reapportionments during the 1950- constitution by vesting reapportionment 59 deca(ê. The federal census of 1960 was responsibility for both houses in a three- ' an important factor in achieving the wide- man commission"; and the Court sched-, spread action of the last two êars, as uled headings on a new suit to force the" were the'counting public pressures and holding of elections in 1962, as well as - the evidences of increasing judicial inter- ordering the Elections Board to show est in the processes of legislative reappbr- cause why it should not hold elections s tionment. , ' under the disputed 1961 act. Analysis of the table cited above indi- Historically, the state and federal courts \cates that all fifteen states iiow employing, have refused to go beyond state legislative m whole or in part, nonlegislative means action or inaction, on the grounds that in /.onnection with reapportionment ac-' reapportionment is a purely political mat-^ tually have reapportioned sjince "1950. ^^ter, and that to intervene would violate Among the other thirty-three states (ex- the separation of powers. Federal courts eluding Delaware and Maryland, which âve also been reluctant

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