06-29-2015, 07:59 PM
(06-29-2015, 07:29 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: This is the portion of their constitution in question:
“the legislative authority of the state shall be vested in the legislature, consisting of a senate and a house of representatives, but the people reserve the power to propose laws and amendments to the constitution and to enact or reject such laws and amendments at the polls, independently of the legislature; and they also reserve, for use at their own option, the power to approve or reject at the polls any act, or item, section, or part of any act, of the legislature.”
If the legislature can make any law concerning how they redistrict, would that not mean that the people, via referendum, can make any law concerning redistricting?
It's also interesting that this law was passed in 2000 and it seems like it wasn't until 2012 that they then took issue with the 2010 redistricting.
So, in looking further into this all, I agree with the ruling. The passage you quote here states that the people can create an amendment to the state constitution, which is what occurred to create this commission. The U.S. Constitution rests the authority for the time and manner of elections on the state legislatures, but the way that districts are determined is not something covered (and in fact districts are not even required).
The people stuck it to their representatives and they did it right.
