William J. Brennan, Jr.

“ Both the tourists and the military tend to be highly concentrated on Oahu and, indeed, are largely confined to particular regions of that island. Total population figures may thus constitute a substantially distorted reflection of the distribution of state citizenry. If so, a finding that registered voters distribution does not approximate total population distribution is insufficient to establish constitutional deficiency. It is enough if it appears that the distribution of registered voters approximates distribution of state citizens or another permissible population base. ”

“ A high proportion of the possible voting population is registered, [26] and 'strong drives to bring out the vote have resulted in a vote of from 88 to 93.6% of all registered voters during the elections of 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1962.' Id., at 476 (footnote omitted) . In these circumstances, we find no demonstrated error in the District Court's conclusion that the apportionment achieved by use of a registered voters basis substantially approximated that which would have appeared had state citizen population been the guide. ”

“ The Hawaii Constitution authorizes the legislature to propose constitutional amendments to the electorate either upon passage by a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature or upon passage by a majority vote of both housesin each of two successive legislative sessions. The Hawaii Constitution also authorizes the legislature to submit to the people the question of calling a constitutional convention, either at a general election or at a special election called for that purpose. ”

“ The dispute over use of distribution according to registered voters as a basis for Hawaiian apportionment arises because of the sizable differences in results produced by that distribution in contrast to that produced by the distribution according to the State's total population, as measured by the federal census figures. In 1960 Oahu's share of Hawaii's total population was 79%. Its share of persons actually registered was 73%. On the basis of total population, Oahu would be assigned 40 members of the 51-member house of representatives ”

“ Sims are met, apportionment schemes including multi-member districts will constitute an invidious discrimination only if it can be shown that 'designedly or otherwise, a multi-member constituency apportionment scheme, under the circumstances of a particular case, would operate to minimize or cancel out the voting strength of racial or political elements of the voting population.' Id., at 439, 85 S.Ct. ”

“ All parties concede the invalidity of the provisions of Art. III, § 2, apportioning the senate on the basis of geography rather than population, and of the provision of Art. XV, § 2, 6, requiring a majority vote of the electorate in each of a majority of the counties to amend senatorial apportionment established by the constitution. ”

“ The State remains free to adopt other plans for apportionment, and the present interim plan will remain in effect for no longer time than is necessary to adopt a permanent plan. The 1966 general elections are imminent, and election machinery must be put into operation before further proceedings could be completed. In this context, the question of embarrassment of state legislative deliberations may be put aside. For present purposes, H.B. 987 may be treated together with the existing house apportionment as a new, overall proposal for interim apportionment. ”

“ Under the total apportionment scheme which resulted from this enactment, Oahu would not have any single-member districts in either the house or the senate. The distribution of registered voters in Oahu is such that Oahu's 10 representative districts have two to six representatives each, and its five senatorial districts each would have either three or four senators. Hawaii County would be a single senatorial district represented by three senators and have five representative districts, four choosing a single representative and the fifth electing three. ”

“ Mann, 377 U.S., at 691, 84 S.Ct., at 1448, we rejected an argument that underrepresentation of three political subdivisions in Virginia was 'constitutionally justifiable since it allegedly resulted in part from the fact that those areas contain large numbers of military and military-related personnel. Discrimination against a class of individuals, merely because of the nature of their employment, without more being shown, is constitutionally impermissible. ”

“ This apportionment scheme was first attacked in the Supreme Court of Hawaii, within a month after we decided Reynolds v. Sims. That court refused to pass on the validity of the apportionment at that time. It noted the imminence of the 1964 election and stated its belief that, consistent with the Hawaii Constitution, judicial proceedings should await legislative proposals for a constitutional amendment or a constitutional convention. ”

“ It is relevant to note that the Hawaii Legislature was dominated by multi-member districts in both houses before statehood. This feature thus did not originate with the senate plan here under consideration.↑ This figure is calculated using 1960 figures; in the apportionment of 1959 Oahu was assigned 36 representatives, on the basis of 1958 registration figures.↑ Thus, in 1960, the ninth and tenth districts contained 28% of Oahu's population but only 17% of its registered voters ”

“ Even if an asserted error in statistics is corrected, the figure exceeds 80%.↑ Note 25, supra. An attempt was made to show that registration percentages among low-income residents of Oahu were substantially lower than among other resident groups. It is unclear to what extent these statistics reflect mailitary pay scales. Thus, they may be an unfair representation of state citizen registration patterns. ”