Pennsylvania Advisory Opinions December 03, 1971: AGO 88 (December 03, 1971)

Advisory Opinion Text

Reapportionment—Secretary of the Commonwealth—Responsibilities in publishing preliminary reapportionment plan.

1. Framers of the Pennsylvania Constitution in Article II, Section 17, meant to insure that any reapportionment plan, be" it preliminary, revised, final, or court ordered be published to the extent necessary to keep the public informed and afford the public the opportunity to voice objection to the plan.

Harrisburg, Pa., December 3, 1971 Honorable C. DeLores Tucker Secretary of the Commonwealth Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Dear Secretary Tucker:

You have requested our opinion on your constitutional responsibilities pertaining to the publishing of the preliminary legislative reapportionment plan.

The method for reapportioning the Legislature is provided for in Article II, Section 17 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania of 1968. Subsection (c) provides that the Legislative Reapportionment Commission shall file a preliminary reapportionment plan with the Secretary of the Commonwealth who under the law is the "elections officer of the Commonwealth."

Subsection (c) further provides that the Commission shall have thirty days after filing the preliminary plan to make corrections in the plan. In addition the Constitution states:

"Any person aggrieved by the preliminary plan shall have the same thirty-day period to file exceptions with the commission in which case the commission shall have thirty days after the date the exceptions were filed to prepare and file such with elections officer a revised reapportionment plan."

It should be noted that the constitutional scheme contemplates exceptions to the preliminary plan being filed by "any person." It is clear that the reference to "any person" in Subsection (c) was intended by the framers of the Constitution to mean any member of the public.

Subsection (h) of Article II, Section 17 provides in relevant part as follows:

"Any reapportionment plan filed by the commission, or ordered or prepared by the Supreme Court upon the failure of the commission to act, shall be published by the elections officer once in at least one newspaper of general circulation in each senatorial and representative district . . ."

The normal purpose of a publication clause is to ensure that the public has notice of some contemplated official action. In this case it appears clear that the framers of the Constitution intended that the public be aware of a reapportionment plan in order to have an opportunity to voice objection to it, or, in the language of the Constitution, "file exceptions" to it.

Although there may be some ambiguity in Subsection (h) arising from the use and placement of the phrase "any reapportionment plan," it is my opinion that the framers of the Constitution meant to ensure that any reapportionment plan, be it preliminary, revised, final, or court ordered, should be published to the extent necessary to keep the public informed. The right of the public to know and be kept informed of governmental action, particularly action affecting the franchise, is especially important.

Accordingly, you are advised that the Constitution requires that you publish the preliminary reapportionment plan in accordance with the specifications of Article II, Section 17(h).

Sincerely,

J. Shane Creamer, Attorney General.