Not sure about cases, but in California the law stipulates that elections
are held at their next regularly scheduled date.

In practice that only effects the State Senate since all Assemblymembers are
elected every 2 years in the even year.  The State Senate elects the members
in staggered terms which means that 20 Senators represent tier "old"
districts until December 2004. 

Because of the new and old lines and the staggered terms the Senators work
out how to address constituents who are represented twice (or in some odd
cases constituents who have no representative).  There was a case
(Assemblymember LaFollett v. ?) in the late 1980s over exactly which member
represented what district, but if I remember correctly the case simply dealt
with who could lay claim to being the incumbent for that district.  The FPPC
also issued some advice letters concerning mass mailings at state expense.


It actually nearly caused a problem here due to the March primary.  The new
lines were not approved by the Legislature and the Governor until September
2001 leaving candidates, clerks and registrars with a very short time to
prepare maps etc.  

There was all some contention (but amazingly, as far as I know, no suit)
over the Los Angeles city council redistricting this year.  The members are
elected to staggered terms. This year the issue concerned the assignment of
members to districts.  One member, Councilmember Ruth Galanter, who is term
limited out no represents a district half way across the city from her old
one. She does not live in the new one and there is no overlap.  The only
connection is that the new district has the same number as her old one.

Hope something in there helps.

Lloyd Levine
Assemblymember, 40th District
California State Legislature
(916) 319-2040
(818) 904-3840
 



 -----Original Message-----
From: 	David Schultz [mailto:dschultz@gw.hamline.edu] 
Sent:	Wednesday, February 05, 2003 2:05 PM
To:	election-law@majordomo.lls.edu
Subject:	Redistricting  and time to next election

Are their any cases addressing how soon after the last census new
legislative elections must be held reflecting the new census?  

Specifically, the scenario I am investigating is where elections were held
in 2001 for four year terms (still reflecting the census from 1990) and now
the next elections reflecting the 2000 census will not occur until 2005.

Thanks for any public or private input on this.

David Schultz, Professor
Hamline University
Graduate School of Public
Administration and Management
MS-A1740
1536 Hewitt Avenue
St. Paul, Minnesota 55104
651.523.2858 (voice)
651.523.3098 (fax)