Robertson v. Bartels
| Decision Date | 18 June 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-2024.,01-2024. |
| Citation | 148 F.Supp.2d 443 |
| Parties | Norman M. ROBERTSON, John Coiro, Eugene Kulick, Garry Colletti, Jay R. Schwartz, Dennis E. Gonzalez, Gerald H. Zecker, Plaintiffs, v. Larry BARTELS, Richard Codey, Sonia Delgado, Thomas Giblin, Lewis Greenwald, Bonnie Watson Coleman, in their official capacities as Members of the State of New Jersey Apportionment Commission, the State Of New Jersey Apportionment Commission, Deforest B. Soaries, Jr., Secretary of State of the State of New Jersey, and John Farmer, Attorney General of the State of New Jersey, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Jersey |
Norman M. Robertson, Little Falls, NJ, Pro se.
James A. Robertson, Kalison, McBride, Jackson & Murphy, P.A., Liberty Corner, NJ, for Plaintiffs John Coiro, Eugene Kulick Gary Colletti, Jay R. Schwartz, Dennis Gonzalez and Gerald H. Zecker.
Paul M. Smith, Sam Hirsch, Jenner & Block LLC, Washington, DC, Robert E. Levy, Nomi Lowy, Scarinci & Hollenbeck, Secaucus, NJ, Leon J. Sokol, Steven Siegel, Sokol, Behot & Fiorenzo, Hackensack, NJ, for Defendants New Jersey Apportionment Commission, Richard Codey, Sonia Delgado, Thomas Giblin, Lewis Greenwald, Bonnie Watson Coleman & New Jersey Apportionment Commission.
Robert L. Clifford, McElroy, Deutsch & Mahoney, Morristown, NJ, for Defendant Larry Bartels.
John J. Farmer, Jr., Attorney General, Donna Kelly, Senior Deputy Attorney General, Mark J. Fleming, Assistant Attorney General, Mark Turner Holmes, Deputy Attorney General, Pamela E. Gellert, Deputy Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey, Department of Law & Public Safety, Division of Law, Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex, Trenton, NJ, for Defendants Secretary of State & Attorney General of State of New Jersey.
Before MORTON I. GREENBERG, Circuit Judge, and DICKINSON R. DEBEVOISE and HAROLD A. ACKERMAN, District Judges (convened pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2284).
This matter comes on before this court on the plaintiffs' complaint seeking injunctive relief to prevent the defendants from implementing a redistricting plan for New Jersey's Senate and General Assembly districts. The plaintiffs allege that the redistricting plan violates the First, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Additionally, they challenge the constitutionality of New Jersey's one-year district residency requirement as a requisite for an individual to be eligible to run for legislative office. The defendants have moved for summary judgment. Because we find that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law, we will grant the defendants' motion. We will refer the third count of the plaintiffs' complaint addressing the residency requirement to a single judge for disposition.
This case arises out of the New Jersey Apportionment Commission's (the "Commission") certification on April 11, 2001, of a district map for the State's forty legislative districts to reflect the results of the 2000 federal decennial census. Pursuant to the Constitution of the State of New Jersey, the Senate and General Assembly districts are to be established by a Commission following every federal decennial census. See N.J. Const. Art. 4, § III, ¶ 1. The Commission is comprised of ten members, five appointed by each of the state chairpersons of the two political parties receiving the highest number of votes in the most recent gubernatorial election, here the Democratic and Republican parties. See id.
Following the Commission's appointment in November 2000, it could not agree on a redistricting plan. Therefore, pursuant to the New Jersey Constitution, Art. 4, § 3, ¶ 2, it certified its inability to do so to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, who, on or about March 26, 2001, appointed Professor Larry Bartels as the eleventh member. Thereafter, following various meetings, on April 11, 2001, the Commission certified a plan for the State's legislative districts, and on April 12, 2001, filed the plan with the Secretary of State. The Democratic members proposed a plan that essentially was adopted, but Bartels, who plainly was the controlling party in the redistricting process, modified the plan.
That same day, immediately following the filing of the plan, certain plaintiffs who included African-American registered voters and residents of Essex County, Hispanic registered voters and residents of Essex and Hudson counties, and Republican members of the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly,1 filed a complaint and proposed order to show cause in the district court challenging the plan. See Page v. Bartels, 144 F.Supp.2d 346 (D.N.J. 2001). The plaintiffs in Page pled four counts: (1) that the defendants' actions infringed upon the plaintiffs' rights as protected by § 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; (2) that the plan intentionally violates § 2 of the Voting Rights Act; (3) that ratification and employment of the plan violates the plaintiffs' Due Process and Equal Protection rights as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; and (4) that defendants' actions violated the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The plaintiffs in Page sought an injunction against implementation of the new redistricting plan. Following the resolution of procedural matters not germane to this action except to the extent that the disposition has precedential significance here, see Page v. Bartels, 248 F.3d 175 (3d Cir.2001), Chief Judge Becker of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit convened a three-judge panel to preside over the matter. On April 30-May 1, 2001, the panel presided over a full evidentiary trial.
Then, on April 27, 2001, a different set of plaintiffs, namely Senator Norman Robertson, the incumbent Republican Senator in District 34, John Coiro, the Mayor of the Borough of Totowa, Eugene Kulick, the Mayor of Little Falls, Garry Colletti, the Mayor of West Paterson, and Jay Schwartz and Dennis Gonzalez, two individuals precluded from running for legislative office because of the one-year district residency requirement, commenced this action. Subsequently, Gerald H. Zecker, an incumbent Republican Assemblyman in District 34, was permitted to intervene as a plaintiff. The plaintiffs' three-count complaint alleged: first, that the proposed District 34 "was constituted with a racebased outcome as the predominant consideration to the subordination of traditional principles of redistricting" in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution; second, that the Commission engaged in purposeful unconstitutional racial discrimination by adopting a redistricting plan that favored certain minority incumbent legislators; and third, that the one-year district residency requirement of Art. IV, § I, of the New Jersey Constitution is an unconstitutional infringement upon First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. Ex. C at 6-21 (Compl.¶¶ 14-50).
On May 2, 2001, after the plaintiffs here brought this action, the Page panel denied the plaintiffs in that case all injunctive relief and entered final judgment in favor of the defendants. Then, on May 3, 2001, the plaintiffs in this matter filed an application for an order to show cause seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against implementation of the plan. Judge Debevoise, however, denied their application for the temporary restraining order, though he did schedule a hearing on the plaintiffs' application for a preliminary injunction for May 15, 2001. Thereafter, on May 7, 2001, Chief Judge Becker appointed a three-judge panel to preside over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2284.2
Subsequently, the parties in this case agreed to consolidate the preliminary and permanent injunction hearings. They also agreed, and we ordered, that testimony taken in the Page litigation would be admissible at trial in this action and available for incorporation in the defendants' summary judgment motion. See Defs.' Mot. for Summ. J. Ex. J at 12 (Tr. of May 16, 2001 Conference).
We heard oral argument on defendants' summary judgment motion on May 31, 2001, following which we orally granted the motion on the first and second counts of the complaint dealing with the redistricting issues. We reserved judgment on the third count pending further briefing by the parties on whether we should refer it to a single judge for disposition. We since have concluded that we should refer that count to a single judge and have entered an order doing so. This opinion sets forth our reasons for taking these actions.
We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331, as the plaintiffs filed suit raising claims under the United States Constitution. Because the plaintiffs' claims challenge the constitutionality of the apportionment of a statewide legislative body, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2284, counts one and two are properly heard before a district court of three judges.
Summary judgment is appropriate if "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c). In resolving a motion for summary judgment, we are required to determine whether "the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). In making this determination, the evidence of the plaintiffs as the nonmoving parties is to be believed and we must draw all reasonable inferences in their favor. See id. at 255, 106 S.Ct. at 2513. Furthermore, the defendants, as the movants, bear the initial burden of...
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...non-redistricting federal claims were unrelated to the claim giving rise to the panel's jurisdiction. See, e.g. , Robertson v. Bartels , 148 F.Supp.2d 443, 461–62 (D.N.J. 2001) (declining to exercise pendent jurisdiction in racial gerrymandering case over claim that durational residency req......
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