In cities which adopt both a new plan of city council and a new plan of school committee organization, the respective district lines shall be the same for both bodies. Each such district shall be compact and shall contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of inhabitants, shall be composed of contiguous existing precincts, and shall be drawn with a view towards preserving the integrity of existing neighborhoods.
District | Population | % Variance |
---|---|---|
-------- | ---------- | ---------- |
District I | 60,289 | -3.6 |
District II | 66,125 | +5.7 |
District III | 57,307 | -8.4 |
District IV | 53,253 | -14.9 |
District V | 56,291 | -10.0 |
District VI | 58,640 | -6.3 |
District VII | 64,711 | +3.4 |
District VIII | 64,920 | +3.8 |
District IX | 68,007 | +8.7 |
the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.
The conception of political equality from the Declaration of Independence, to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, to the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth Amendments can mean only one thing—one person, one vote.
[b]y holding that as a federal constitutional requisite both houses of a state legislature must be apportioned on a population basis, we mean that the Equal Protection Clause requires that a State make an honest and good faith effort to construct districts ... as nearly of equal population as is practicable.
Each such district shall be compact and shall contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of inhabitants, shall be composed of contiguous existing precincts and shall be drawn with a view towards preserving the integrity of existing neighborhoods.
Had the population remained static, the court could specify the 1960 census as a base. However, no court could blind itself to the world of today. To use 1960 figures in many areas would be to enforce the disparity of which plaintiffs complain.... It may be suggested, however, that population statistics as of December 31, 1966 might well be capable of reasonable ascertainment from various sources to which the Legislature would have access. Such current figures should tend to reflect the radical population changes in the areas where such changes have occurred ... Even if perfection cannot be achieved between now and 1973 [the year in which congressmen would take office, elected under a plan based on 1970 figures], improvement is worth the effort.
[T]hese estimates of an impartial University department are proper for consideration by this court ... Such estimates would appear to have more validity than to use the 1960 Census figures. However, the Legislature may find some other census or estimates even more reliable ... We are saying that better evidence of population in 1967 is available than the blind use of the 1960 Census. Cf. Meeks v. Avery, 251 F.Supp. 245.
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