Download or read book Attorney General Opinion No. 1983-033 written by Robert T. Stephan and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pursuant to Article 10 of the Kansas Constitution, the 1979 Session of the Kansas Legislature enacted Senate Bill No. 220, which reapportioned the state senatorial districts, based on figures compiled in the 1978 state agricultural census. The reapportionment statute was presented to the supreme court by the Attorney General, with the court holding, in a final judgment, that the plan complied with the requirements of the state and federal constitutions. Accordingly, unless it is ordered to do so by a court of competent jurisdiction, the legislature may not act again on reapportionment until the time set forth by Article 10, which is 1989. Reapportionment on a decennial basis, such as that provided by the Kansas Constitution, has been held consistent with equal protection rights under the federal constitution. Additionally, court decisions have sanctioned the use of figures derived from the state agricultural census, rather than the United States census, and have found no discrimination in the way the state census considered persons in military service in arriving at population figures for each district. Accordingly, the fact that U.S. census figures collected subsequent to 1979 are dissimilar from those used by the legislature and approved by the supreme court is insufficient to challenge the validity of the apportionment plan currently in effect. However, given that the state agricultural census has been replaced by the federal census, the next reapportionment scheduled for 1989 will of necessity use data collected in 1980, yet will draw districts which will be used until 1999. As population shifts during this lengthy period may give rise to equal protection concerns the legislature may wish to consider remedial measures prior to 1989, such as amending the Kansas Constitution, Article 10, or reinstituting some form of state census. Cited herein: K.S.A. 11-201, 24-3402, 24-3403, L. 1979, ch. 55, 1983 SR No. 1814, 1979 SB No. 220, Kan. Const., Art. 10, section 1, U.S. Const., Amend. XIV.