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ARMBRISTER v. MORALES
943 S.W.2d 202 (1997)
Court of Appeals of Texas, Austin.
April 10, 1997.
No Texas court has construed the relevant provision of section 3. This is, therefore, a case of first impression. Because this case involves a pure question of law, we review the trial court's determination of the issue de novo. Barber v. Colorado Indep. Sch. Dist.,901 S.W.2d 447, 450 (Tex. 1995). After considering the language of article III, section 3 and the arguments of both sides, we conclude the enactment of the Thomas plan will not constitute a section 3 apportionment. We first seek to define the word "apportionment." In interpreting the constitution, we give words their natural, obvious, and ordinary meanings as they are understood by the citizens who adopted them. See Winger v. Pianka,831 S.W.2d 853, 856 (Tex. App.—Austin 1992, writ denied) (citing State v. Clements,319 S.W.2d 450, 452 (Tex.Civ. App.—Texarkana 1958, no writ)). According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, to "apportion" is to "divide and assign in proportion" or to "allot." See Webster's Third New International Dictionary 105 (Philip E. Gove, ed. 1986). According to Black's Law Dictionary, an "apportionment" is "the process by which legislative seats are distributed among units entitled to representation." Black's Law Dictionary 99 (6th ed. 1990). The officials argue enactment of the Thomas plan will constitute an apportionment because it will effectively distribute or divide the senatorial seats among the new senatorial districts. We disagree because the senatorial seats have already been divided among the new districts. The Thomas court ordered that the settlement plan be used in the 1996 election; the plan was so used. The enactment of the Thomas plan will do nothing more than memorialize the apportionment already applied in the previous election. Because the proposed legislative action does not change the division of senatorial seats currently in effect, it does not constitute "distribution" or "division" of seats. Hence, it does not qualify as an apportionment within the meaning of section 3. Both parties argue our decision should be influenced by policy concerns. Neither our conclusion nor the district court's judgment effects the main policy underlying the constitutional provision. That is, the provision seeks to ensure that voters in any changed district will not be represented for more than two years by a senator they did not elect.4 Only half of the Senate seats were elected in 1996.5 Nothing in the record indicates that any or all the seats from the districts changed by the Thomas plan were up for re-election in 1996. Consequently, some of the constituents in the half of the districts not elected in 1996 may currently be represented, after implementation of the Thomas plan, by a senator they did not elect. By 1998, those constituents will have waited four years before having a chance to vote for their own senator. The election of an entirely new Senate in 1998 will not shorten this period. The only action that would have prevented contravention of this constitutional policy is the election of an entirely new Senate in 1996, an action that cannot happen now. Whether half or all senatorial seats are up for re-election in 1998, all constituents will be represented, after the 1998 election, by a senator for whom they had an opportunity to vote. In other words, the issue of whether a court can give effect to the primary policy underlying section 3 in the context of this dispute is moot. Furthermore, our holding, unlike the district court's ruling, serves other general policies underlying section 3. First, the
staggered-term senatorial electoral system ensures that the Senate always has the service of experienced members. See Tex. Const. art. III, § 3, Interpretive Commentary. Second, allowing senators to have four-year terms, as opposed to the two-year terms of members of the House of Representatives, conceivably makes the Senate less subject to the demands of popular opinion than the house. See id. The district court's ruling would require that an entirely new Senate be elected yet a third time this decade. This ruling unnecessarily frustrates the policies underlying section 3. We wish to make clear that our decision is narrow and limited to the facts presented here. We do not mean to suggest that section 3 requires only a single "new Senate" election every decade, as the senators argue. Moreover, this case does not require us to decide whether enactment of a court-ordered plan would trigger election of an entirely new Senate had the court-ordered plan not been used in an election in the interim. Neither does the case require us to decide whether the Thomas plan constituted an apportionment under section 3. Today's holding turns on the fact that the court-ordered Thomas plan was given effect in the 1996 election. Having said that, we sustain the senators' point of error. CONCLUSION
1. The other appellants are Senators Gonzalo Barrientos, Teel Bivins, J.E. "Buster" Brown, David Cain, John Carona, Rodney Ellis, Mario Gallegos, Michael Galloway, Chris Harris, Tom Haywood, Eddie Lucio, Gregory Luna, Frank Madla, Mike Moncrief, Jane Nelson, Drew Nixon, Jerry Patterson, Bill Ratliff, Florence Shapiro, David Sibley, Carlos Truan, Jim Turner, Jeff Wentworth, Royce West, John Whitmire, and Judith Zaffirini. 2. The other appellees are George W. Bush, in his official capacity as Governor, Tony Garza, in his official capacity as Secretary of State, Bob Bullock, in his official capacity as Lieutenant Governor, and James E. "Pete" Laney, in his official capacity as Speaker of the House of Representatives. 3. The word "apportionment" is closely connected to the concept of legislative "districting." "Apportionment," in the technical sense, refers solely to the process of allocating legislators among several areas, while "districting" entails the actual drafting of district lines. Kilgarlin v. Martin,252 F.Supp. 404, 410 n. 1 (S.D.Tex. 1966), rev'd on other grounds,386 U.S. 120, 87 S.Ct. 820, 17 L.Ed.2d 771 (1967). In Texas, the legislature both "apportions" its senatorial seats and "districts" geographical areas into units. See id. In the interest of clarity, therefore, we will refer to the total process as "apportionment" in our opinion. See id; see also Op.Tex.Att'y Gen. Nos. M-389 (1969), DM-351 (1995). 4. The staggered-term electoral system requires an election to be held every two years. Article III, section 3 dictates that a new Senate (i.e., all Senate seats, as opposed to half) be elected after every apportionment. The longest a voter in a reapportioned district would have to wait to vote in the changed district, therefore, would be two years. 5. Specifically, the half up for re-election in 1996 was comprised of those seats assigned two-year terms in 1995, after the 1994 election.
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