that [Senate Joint Resolution] 1 E may not constitute a joint resolution of apportionment because although the Legislature in SJR 1 E did agree as to the number and location of the constitutionally required House and Senate districts, the House and the Senate apparently did not agree concerning the separate requirement for consecutively numbered districts.
SECTION 1. Composition.—The legislative power of the state shall be vested in a legislature of the State of Florida, consisting of a senate composed of one senator elected from each senatorial district and a house of representatives composed of one member elected from each representative district.
The legislature ... shall apportion the state in accordance with the constitution of the state and of the United States into not less than thirty nor more than forty consecutively numbered senatorial districts of either contiguous, overlapping or identical territory, and into not less than eighty nor more than one hundred twenty consecutively numbered representative districts of either contiguous, overlapping or identical territory.
Senators shall be elected for terms of four years, ... except, at the election next following a reapportionment, some senators shall be elected for terms of two years when necessary to maintain staggered terms.
Senators shall be elected for terms of four years, those from odd-numbered districts in the years the numbers of which are multiples of four and those from even-numbered districts in even-numbered years the numbers of which are not multiples of four; except, at the election next following a reapportionment, some senators shall be elected for terms of two years when necessary to maintain staggered terms.
If by this reapportionment the district of a member of the senate, as now constituted, who is not otherwise assigned a district hereinabove and whose term of office expires with the general election of November, 1968, shall be altered, abolished or the number of his district relocated outside of his present district, then such member shall continue as a senator for the county of his residence during the remainder of his term and shall have an equal vote with any other senator and the number of his senatorial district shall be indicated by adding the letter “X” after the number of the district to which he was elected, even though it increases the maximum number of members herein provided for.
The legislative power of the state shall be vested in a legislature of the State of Florida, consisting of a senate composed of one senator elected from each senatorial district and a house of representatives composed of one member elected from each representative district.
The necessity of a senate is not less indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies, to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions. Examples on this subject might be cited without number; and from proceedings within the United States, as well as from the history of other nations. But a position that will not be contradicted, need not to be proved. All that need be remarked is, that a body which is to correct this infirmity, ought itself to be free from it, and consequently ought to be less numerous. It ought moreover to possess great firmness, and consequently ought to hold its authority by a tenure of considerable duration.
In the case of a member of the legislature, although he is chosen from, and must reside within, his district, he performs no official function therein. Instead of acting individually within his district, he becomes a member of an organization which acts only in its organic capacity, and at the capital of the state. He is in a certain sense an officer of the state, and, with others, constitutes a department of the state government. The district from which he is elected is not a municipal or quasi municipal corporation, and it never acts or is dealt with as a political entity. Districts are provided to create a system by which the members will be close to the people which they represent, and from which members are to be elected. In creating districts for this purpose, the legislature fixes the boundary lines, and designates them by numbers; but that is the extent of the organization, and the only reason for their existence. The voters within the limits of a district are an electoral body who choose one of their number to represent them in the legislature, and no other action is ever taken by them as a result of such organization. The member is therefore not an officer of the district, as the probate judge is an officer of the county, or a justice of the peace an officer for the township. The matter of apportionment is only a provision for future elections, and is not designed to affect *1060 the title to office, or the tenure of the members making the apportionment.
As the United States Supreme Court has pointed out under the parallel articles of the federal constitution, the doctrine of separation of powers requires that the judiciary refrain from deciding a matter that is committed to a coordinate branch of government by the demonstrable text of the constitution.
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