[EL] Palmdale California VRA case (Fredric Woocher)

[David Ely]

The issue of Charter Cities rights have been raised in a number of cases as
well as in analysis of the CVRA.  Below is an excerpt from an article by
Marguerite Leoni and Christopher Skinnell to the Ca League of Cities in 2003
which does a good job of explaining why Charter Cities are covered.

 

It is true that a charter can provide for a form of government or electoral
process for a city that is different from the general law. A charter city,
however, remains subject to the California Constitution and would be
prohibited from adopting or maintaining a discriminatory electoral system or
electoral practices that violate the equal protection clause or the right to
vote. See Canaan v. Abdelnour, 40 Cal.3d 703 (1985), overruled on other
grounds by Edelstein v. City & County of San Francisco, 29 Cal.4th 164, 183
(2002); Rees v. Layton, 6 Cal.App.3d 815 (1970). Furthermore, California
courts have recognized that state statutes can override city charters if
they are narrowly tailored to address an issue of statewide concern, even in
the core areas of charter city control like election administration.
Edelstein, 29 Cal.4th at 172-174; Johnson v. Bradley, 4 Cal.4th 389, 398-400
(1992). The CVRA expressly provides that it is intended to implement the
guarantees of Section 7 of Article I (Equal Protection) and Section 2 of
Article II (Right to Vote) of the California Constitution, which are
themselves regarded as matters of statewide concern. See Cawdrey v. City of
Redondo Beach, 15 Cal.App.4th 1212, 1226 (1993).
http://www.cacities.org/UploadedFiles/LeagueInternet/f7/f736ba74-086a-4f5d-b
eb7-853d898691d8.pdf

 

They go on to discuss a possible argument that the CVRA is not narrowly
tailored, but all of the courts that have looked at these cases so far have
accepted that it is.

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