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- Massa^usetts, 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. witl^espect to averages about one to three or four, but the representativeness of numerous legis- this, too, varies widely^ in Idaho t^ere 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 l^ouses 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 tary^of 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;^ih fifteen (in- the legislature fails to act": California, Illi- cluding. the Nebraska unicameral)- they nois„ Michigan.^orth 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/^oup 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(^e. 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 ^ears, 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 ^ave also been reluctant