Skolnick v. Illinois State Electoral Board

• Decision Date: 31 December 1969
• Docket Number: No. 69 C 755.,69 C 755.
• Citation: 307 F. Supp. 698
• Parties: Sherman H. SKOLNICK and Harriet Sherman, Plaintiffs, v. ILLINOIS STATE ELECTORAL BOARD, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

307 F. Supp. 698

Sherman H. SKOLNICK and Harriet Sherman, Plaintiffs, v. ILLINOIS STATE ELECTORAL BOARD, Defendant.

No. 69 C 755.

United States District Court N. D. Illinois, E. D.

December 31, 1969.

Sherman H. Skolnick and Harriet Sherman, pro se.

The Chicago Bar Association, by John J. Sullivan, and James P. Chapman, Chicago, Ill., amicus curiae.

Don H. Reuben, Lawrence Gunnels, Chicago, Ill., and John E. Cassidy, Jr., Peoria, Ill., for defendant.

Before CASTLE, Chief Circuit Judge, and CAMPBELL and DECKER, District Judges.

MEMORANDUM, FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND DECREE

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiffs acting pro se have brought this action on their own behalf and on behalf of, "all other voters, residents, citizens, taxpayers and persons similarly situated", and seek to set aside the present apportionment plan for Illinois Congressional Districts. The present districts were formulated and adopted in December 1965 by joint action of this court and the Supreme Court of Illinois. Kirby v. Illinois State Electoral Board, 251 F.Supp. 908 (1965) and People ex rel. Scott v. Kerner, 33 Ill.2d 460, 211 N.E.2d 736 (1965). The present plan was deemed constitutional when promulgated. (251 F.Supp. at 910). Recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, however, establish that population deviations regarded constitutional in the 1965 plan now would exceed constitutional standards. For example, in Kirkpatrick v. Preisler, 394 U.S. 526, 89 S.Ct. 1225, 22 L.Ed.2d 519 deviations of only 3.13 per-cent above and 2.83 per-cent below the average were held invalid. In Wells v. Rockefeller, 394 U.S. 542, 89 S.Ct. 1234, 22 L.Ed.2d 535, the Court held invalid deviations ranging from 6.6 per-cent above to 6.8 per-cent below the average. These decisions obviously seem to demand mathematical exactness in drawing Congressional districts.

The present districts under our 1965 plan for Illinois contain deviations as high as 7.5 per-cent above the average and 6.1 per-cent below. Accordingly, we now must conclude that the present districting plan is unconstitutional. We now turn to the appropriate relief.

The court appointed Amicus Curiae, Chicago Bar Association by John J. Sullivan, Esq. and James P. Chapman, Esq. has suggested that the most appropriate relief considering all of the circumstances is to declare the present plan unconstitutional and to require a new and constitutional plan to be adopted before the 1972 election, permitting the 1970 election to be conducted under the present plan. Candidates for the 1970 election have already filed all necessary petitions for the 1970 primary. We agree in substance with the proposals of our distinguished Amicus.

In determining what relief to fashion we are presented with a question similar to that before the court in Skolnick v. Illinois State Electoral Board, 307 F.Supp. 691, challenging the validity of the present apportionment plans for the Illinois State Senate and State House of Representatives. (Decided December 1, 1969). In that case the court concluded that the 1960 census figures, the most recent figures available, were no longer reliable; that more current figures...