“A Cloud of Constitutional Illegitimacy”: Prospectivity and the De Facto Doctrine in the Gerrymandering Context

Courts have traditionally shielded the acts of malapportioned or otherwise illegally constituted legislatures from dissolution by employing the “de facto doctrine,” an ancient common law policy tool with medieval roots. In its most basic form, the de facto doctrine seeks to safeguard the acts of unlawful but well-intentioned public officials from collateral attack out of concern for third-party reliance and a bald recognition of necessity. However, the doctrine as traditionally articulated only serves to validate past official acts; once the official in question has lost the “color of authority,” the doctrine no longer affords his actions de facto validity. Although this has not prevented courts from extending the doctrine, or something like it, to cover prospective acts in certain scenarios, courts have generally avoided “taking a look under the hood” and wrestling with the policy concerns underlying the doctrine to see if they still apply prospectively. This Note examines the potential use of the de facto doctrine in the gerrymandering context. Both racial and partisan gerrymandering present distinct challenges for courts seeking to prospectively apply the de facto doctrine to acts of a state legislature: generally, gerrymanders are created intentionally, making it harder to apply any “good faith” exception; illegal gerrymandering by its nature trespasses on important constitutional guarantees; and the traditional motivations for the de facto doctrine—necessity and reliance—arguably do not apply to legislation crafted by an unconstitutional government body seeking to preserve its power. By examining the historical roots of the doctrine, tracing its modern development, and considering its underlying policy rationales, this Note seeks to answer two questions: (1) how have courts expanded the de facto doctrine and its animating principles prospectively?; and (2) how do those expansions shape the prospective application of the doctrine in the gerrymandering context

Data from: Range expansion and population dynamics of an invasive species: the Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Invasive species offer ecologists the opportunity to study the factors governing species distributions and population growth. The Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) serves as a model organism for invasive spread because of the wealth of abundance records and the recent development of the invasion. We tested whether a set of environmental variables were related to the carrying capacities and growth rates of individual populations by modeling the growth trajectories of individual populations of the Collared-Dove using Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) and Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data. Depending on the fit of our growth models, carrying capacity and growth rate parameters were extracted and modeled using historical, geographical, land cover and climatic predictors. Model averaging and individual variable importance weights were used to assess the strength of these predictors. The specific variables with the greatest support in our models differed between data sets, which may be the result of temporal and spatial differences between the BBS and CBC. However, our results indicate that both carrying capacity and population growth rates are related to developed land cover and temperature, while growth rates may also be influenced by dispersal patterns along the invasion front. Model averaged multivariate models explained 35–48% and 41–46% of the variation in carrying capacities and population growth rates, respectively. Our results suggest that widespread species invasions can be evaluated within a predictable population ecology framework. Land cover and climate both have important effects on population growth rates and carrying capacities of Collared-Dove populations. Efforts to model aspects of population growth of this invasive species were more successful than attempts to model static abundance patterns, pointing to a potentially fruitful avenue for the development of improved invasive distribution models

sugar tea

sugar n. ..well, you might...might have a pound or two, you know, just for anyone that come in - a stranger or anything come in - give him a cup o' sugar tea an' that's...that's all. (ie tea with sugar in it (rather than molasses) )YesDNE-cit J. D. A. WIDDOWSONUsed IUsed I1Used Isugar-berry, sugar hurt, ~ whort, sugar-loaf, TOLT, sugar te

cbc.2010.abund

cbc.2010.abun

cbc.abund

cbc.abun

bbs.growth

bbs.growt

Variable relative importance weights and weighted parameter estimates.

<p>Variable relative importance weights and weighted parameter estimates.</p

Linear predictors of carrying capacities and growth rates.

<p>Univariate plots of the strongest predictor variables for: (a) Christmas Bird Count (CBC) carrying capacity versus percent developed low intensity cover, (b) Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) carrying capacity versus minimum temperature of the coldest month (°C); and population growth rate: (c) CBC population growth rate versus invasion distance, (d) BBS population growth rate versus average annual temperature (°C).</p