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Friday, December 30, 2016

Article IV, Section 7 thru 9 of the Oregon State Constitution


Article IV, Section 7 of the Oregon State Constitution discusses the relationship between county lines and senatorial districts.  By and large, in the original districts were essentially entire or half counties.  However, with the growth in population and having the maximum allowed legislatures, the districts are just small areas, especially in the high density parts of the Willamette Valley.  Nonetheless, each district has to be within a county.  Since the number of legislators is max'd out, the reality is that the borders may shift from time to time as urban sprawl spreads and there is an influx of rural folk into the cities, but these will not be huge changes to the congressional district.  Again, here is the map of the congressional districts.

Article IV, Section 8 provides qualification requirements for Senators and Representatives.  Summarizing these, the person has to be a US citizen, a resident of the district they will represent, be at least 21 years old, and not have been convicted of a felony. There are some details as to exactly how the age thing works, and also residence in light of possible re-apportionment as described in section 6 of Article IV.

Article IV, Section 9 gives legislators immunity from some prosecution.  This is intended such that someone cannot bring nuisance cases against legislators.  Further, anything stated during the legislative session cannot be brought before any other court.  This is a necessary thing to allow all and any relevant issues to be allowed to be discussed in the legislature.  Although the legislators are expected to stick to the truth, the reality is that in some cases, they will not have correct information and they should not be sued for untruths stated in the legislative assembly lest this inhibit decisions and actions that would make the government ineffective.

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