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1995 Indiana Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (1995)

handle is hein.sag/sagin0021 and id is 1 raw text is: STATE OF INDIANA OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL INDIANA GOVERNMENT CENTER SOUTH. FIFTH FLOOR 402 WEST WASHINGTON STREET * INDIANAPOLIS. IN 46204-2770 PAMELA CARTER TELEPHONE (317) 232-6201 ATTORNEY GENERAL WRITER'S: March 23, 1995 OFFICIAL OPINION 95-1 The Honorable John R. Gregg State Representative Statehouse, Third Floor Indianapolis. IN 46204 Dear Representative Gregg: This letter responds to your request concerning the requirements of Article 4, Section 5 of the Indiana Constitution as they pertain to efforts to redistrict the state for purposes of electing members of the General Assembly at a time and in a manner other than that specified in that section. For the reasons stated below, I conclude that Article 4, Section 5 prohibits redistricting except by the General Assembly elected in the year of a federal decennial census. ANALYSIS As our Supreme Court has held, interpretation of our constitution is controlled by the text itself, illuminated by history and by the purpose and structure of our constitution and the case law surrounding it. Price v. State (1993), Ind., 622 N.E.2d 954, 957, rehearing pending; see also Op. Atty. Gen. 94-4, 18 Ind. Reg. 1396, 1398 (1994). Here, the text, history, and caselaw surrounding the pertinent constitutional provisions point unerringly to the same conclusion: attempts to redistrict in a manner other than that specified in Article 4, § 5 of the Indiana Constitution are forbidden. The Constitutional text itself plainly denies the current General Assembly the power to effect a redistricting. The provision reads as follows: The General Assembly elected during the year in which a federal decennial census is taken shall fix by law the number of Senators and Representatives and apportion them among districts according to the number of inhabitants in each district, as revealed by that federal decennial census. The territory in each district shall be contiguous. Ind. Const. Art. 4, § 5 (emphasis added).' 'The provision was amended in 1881 and again in 1983. As originally enacted, the section referred to an enumeration of the citizens of the State that the General Assembly was required to independently make every six years under prior Article 4, § 4, and provided:

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