Badham

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Plaintiffs, registered Republican voters in several congressional districts in the State of California, challenge California Assembly Bill 2X (“A.B.2X”), a congressional redistricting bill, on several state and federal constitutional grounds.

A.B.2X was passed by the California Senate and Assembly on December 30, 1982. Its passage was necessary because a predecessor redistricting bill, A.B. 301, had been rejected by the voters in a referendum held earlier in 1982, on June 8. The Governor signed A.B.2X on January 2, 1983, and it was chaptered. On January 5, the Elections Division of the Office of the Secretary of State transmitted copies of the chaptered bill to all Registrars of Voters and County Clerks.

Plaintiffs claim that A.B.2X involved population deviations of 3.283%, in violation of Article I, § 2 of the Constitution of the United States. Those population deviations were purportedly reduced, however, by a series of rather substantial changes made in the law after its passage. On February 22, 1983, a staff member of the Assembly Elections and Reapportionment Committee delivered a list of what the defendants and intervenors call “technical corrections”…