League of Women Voters of Nassau County v. Nassau County Bd. of Sup'rs
Citation | 737 F.2d 155 |
Decision Date | 22 May 1984 |
Docket Number | D,No. 326,326 |
Parties | The LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF NASSAU COUNTY, Carol Carlton, Judith Schmertz, Barbara Josepher, Adele Fox and Ann Borner, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. NASSAU COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, Thomas Gulotta, as Presiding Supervisor of Town of Hempstead, James Bennett, as Supervisor of Town of Hempstead, John Kiernan, as Supervisor of Town of North Hempstead, Hannah Komanoff, as Supervisor of City of Long Beach, Joseph Colby, as Supervisor of the Town of Oyster Bay, and Alan Parente, as Mayor-Supervisor of City of Glen Cove, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 83-7602. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Charles Robert, Robert & Schneider, Hempstead, N.Y., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Donald J. Werner, Curtis, Hart & Zaklukiewicz, Merrick, N.Y., for defendants-appellees.
Before OAKES and MESKILL, Circuit Judges, and NEAHER, District Judge. *
Plaintiffs, the League of Women Voters ("League") and five members, appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Jacob Mishler, Judge. Plaintiffs had sued the Nassau County Board of Supervisors ("Board") and its six member supervisors, charging that Nassau County Local Law 2-1982, which reapportioned the Board's weighted voting system after the 1980 census, violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution. After rejecting that constitutional challenge, Judge Mishler granted defendants' motion for summary judgment and dismissed the complaint.
While agreeing with that disposition, we find that it was unnecessary to reach plaintiffs' equal protection argument because, aside from one meritless issue, this case is controlled by the Supreme Court's earlier decision in Franklin v. Krause, 32 N.Y.2d 234, 344 N.Y.S.2d 885, 298 N.E.2d 68 (1973), appeal dismissed, 415 U.S. 904, 94 S.Ct. 1397, 39 L.Ed.2d 461 (1974). Accordingly, we affirm but on the basis of that prior Supreme Court summary adjudication.
New York State's Nassau County is governed by the Board, whose six members are the chief executives of the cities of Glen Cove and Long Beach, and the Towns of Hempstead, Oyster Bay and North Hempstead. 1 Since 1917, the Board has used a weighted voting system, 2 which has been the subject of other litigation.
In Franklin v. Mandeville, 26 N.Y.2d 65, 308 N.Y.S.2d 375, 256 N.E.2d 534 (1970), a case early in reapportionment jurisprudence, the Board's weighted voting plan was also attacked as unconstitutional. Then, as now, despite having a majority of Nassau County's population, the Town of Hempstead was assigned less than a majority of the weighted vote. The New York Court of Appeals held that that allotment violated equal protection.
Notwithstanding that illegality, the New York Court of Appeals permitted the weighted voting system to continue until after the 1970 census, so that the new reapportionment plan would be accurately based. A computer analysis was performed, but yet another weighted voting system was proposed. That proposal was contained in Nassau County Local Law 13-1972 ("Local Law 13-1972") to amend Nassau Government Law Sec. 104 ("Sec. 104").
Outlining the provisions of Local Law 13-1972, one court during the period stated:
Franklin v. Krause, 72 Misc.2d 104, 338 N.Y.S.2d 561, 563 (N.Y.Sup.Ct.1972), rev'd, 32 N.Y.2d 234, 344 N.Y.S.2d 885, 298 N.E.2d 68 (1973), appeal dismissed, 415 U.S. 904, 94 S.Ct. 1397, 39 L.Ed.2d 461 (1974). 3
The referred-to paragraph five provided:
That allocation resulted in the following deviations:
Percent Percent of Voting Municipality Population Population Power Deviation Hempstead 801,592 56.2 54.6 -1.6 Oyster Bay 333,342 23.1 20.4 -2.7 No. Hempstead 235,007 16.5 13.0 -3.5 Long Beach 33,127 2.3 5.6 k3.3 Glen Cove 25,770 1.8 5.6 k3.8 ---------- TOTAL 1,428,838
The maximum range of deviation was 7.3%, i.e., North Hempstead's -3.5% computed with Glen Cove's + 3.8%. 5
Importantly, Local Law 13-1972 still left the Town of Hempstead without a majority of the votes (having 70 when 71 was needed), despite the New York Court of Appeals' clear statement in Franklin v. Mandeville, 308 N.Y.S.2d at 377, 256 N.E.2d 534. Not suprisingly, the new plan was challenged as constitutionally deficient.
In a conceded turnabout, the New York Court of Appeals in Franklin v. Krause, 32 N.Y.2d 234, 344 N.Y.S.2d 885, 892, 298 N.E.2d 68 (1973), held that the weighted voting system under Local Law 13-1972 had "no constitutional infirmity." In reaching that decision, the Court of Appeals acknowledged and endorsed the evolution of reapportionment law, especially in regard to local government.
The Franklin v. Krause plaintiffs, with the League intervening, appealed to the Supreme Court. Before doing so, however, they moved to amend the remittitur. The New York Court of Appeals granted the motion, thereby clarifying that the constitutionality of Local Law 13-1972 had indeed been decided.
Franklin v. Krause, 33 N.Y.2d 646, 348 N.Y.S.2d 554, 303 N.E.2d 71 (1973).
The Supreme Court received the case under its mandatory appellate jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1257(2), but dismissed for want of a substantial federal question. Franklin v. Krause, 415 U.S. 904, 94 S.Ct. 1397, 39 L.Ed.2d 461 (1974). Thus, the constitutional gauntlet of Nassau County's weighted voting system was evidently ended, and the provisions of Local Law 13-1972 became effective on January 1, 1976 as part of Sec....
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