Chief Justice Earl Warren called Baker v. Carr the most important case of his tenure on the Supreme Court. In No. I, 2, of the Constitution, which, carrying out the ideas of Madison and those of like views, provides that Representatives shall be chosen "by the People of the several States," and shall be "apportioned among the several States . [n26] Mr. Smith proposed to add to the resolution, . This article was published more than5 years ago. 3 The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (Farrand ed.1911) 14 (hereafter cited as "Farrand"). Elections are regulated now unequally in some states, particularly South Carolina, with respect to Charleston, [p38] which is represented by thirty members. . King stated that the power of Congress under 4 was necessary to "control in this case"; otherwise, he said, The representatives . . . . It cannot be contended, therefore, that the Court's decision today fills a gap left by the Congress. The one thing that one person, one vote decisions could not effect was the use of gerrymandering. The constitutional and statutory qualifications for electors in the various States are set out in tabular form in 1 Thorpe, A Constitutional History of the American People 1776-1850 (1898), 93-96. 45-46. 51 powers in order to implement treaties. In upholding that claim, the Court attempts to effect reforms in a field which the Constitution, as plainly as can be, has committed exclusively to the political process. Is an equal protection challenge to a malapportionment of state legislatures considered non-justiciable as a political question? . 3. No one would deny that the equal protection clause would also prohibit a law that would expressly give certain citizens a half-vote and others a full vote. . As the Court repeatedly emphasizes, delegates to the Philadelphia Convention frequently expressed their view that representation should be based on population. 53. If, then, slaves were intended to be without representation, Article I did exactly what the Court now says it prohibited: it "weighted" the vote of voters in the slave States. I Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention (1911) (hereafter Farrand), 48, 86-87, 134-136, 288-289, 299, 533, 534; II Farrand 202. The cases of Baker v. Carr (1962) and Wesberry v. Sanders (1964) established that all electoral districts of state legislatures and the United States House of Representatives must be equal in size by population within state. 12. The result was the Constitutional Convention of 1787, called for "the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. . This is the "historical context" which the Convention debates provide. . This decision requires each state to draw its U.S. Congressional districts so that they are approximately equal in population. ." [n21], The delegates who wanted every man's vote to count alike were sharp in their criticism of giving each State, [p12] regardless of population, the same voice in the National Legislature. lacked compactness of territory and approximate equality of population. 57 of The Federalist: Who are to be the electors of the Federal Representatives? We agree with the District Court that the 1931 Georgia apportionment grossly discriminates against voters in the Fifth Congressional District. (Cooke ed.1961) 369. Definition and Examples, The Original Jurisdiction of the US Supreme Court, What Is Sovereign Immunity? This Court, no less than all other branches of the Government, is bound by the Constitution. 491,461277,861213,600, NorthDakota(2). A three-judge District Court, though recognizing the gross population imbalance of the Fifth District in relation to the other districts, dismissed the complaint for "want of equity.". The United States Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could hear and rule on cases in which plaintiffs allege that re-apportionment plans violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. If they do, the small ones will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith who will take them by the hand and do them justice. Though the Articles established a central government for the United States, as the former colonies were even then called, the States retained most of their sovereignty, like independent nations bound together only by treaties. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative. 4820, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. [n33] (The particular possibilities that Steele had in mind were apparently that Congress might attempt to prescribe the qualifications for electors or "to make the place of elections inconvenient." Indeed, if the Congress could never agree on any regulations, then certainly no objection to the 4th section can remain; for the regulations introduced by the state legislatures will be the governing rule of elections, until Congress can agree upon alterations. . [I]t was thought that the regulation of time, place, and manner, of electing the representatives, should be uniform throughout the continent. However, the Court has followed the reasoning of the dissenting justices in those American cases, thus rejecting any implication that districts must have virtually the same population. WebBaker v. Carr , 369 U.S. 186 (1962), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that redistricting qualifies as a justiciable question under the equal 36.Id. Wesberry, a voter of the 5 th District of Georgia, filed suit on the basis that his Congressional district had a population 2-3 times larger than other districts in the State, thereby debasing his vote. References to Old Sarum (ante, p. 15), for example, occurred during the debate on the method of apportionment of Representatives among the States. CLARK, J., Concurring in Part, Dissenting in Part. Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964) was a U.S. Supreme Court case involving U.S. Congressional districts in the state of Georgia. 491. The majoritys decision fails to base its holding on both history and existing precedent. At the time of the Revolution. All that there is is a provision which bases representation in the House, generally but not entirely, on the population of the States. There was not the slightest intimation in that case that Congress' power to prescribe regulations for elections was subject to judicial scrutiny, ante, p. 18, such that this Court could itself prescribe regulations for congressional elections in disregard, and even in contradiction, of congressional purpose. 5. In the absence of a reapportionment, all the Representatives from a State found to have violated the standard would presumably have to be elected at large. In The Federalist, No. . The provisions for apportioning Representatives and direct taxes have been amended by the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Amendments, respectively. . 689,555318,942370,613, Florida(12). Federal courts could create discoverable and manageable standards for granting relief in equal protection cases. Neither of the numbers of The Federalist from which the Court quotes, ante, pp. However, the Court has followed the reasoning of the dissenting justices in those Mr. Justice Frankfurter's Colegrove opinion contended that Art. The Court's holding that the Constitution requires States to select Representatives either by elections at large or by elections in districts composed "as nearly as is practicable" of equal population places in jeopardy the seats of almost all the members of the present House of Representatives. [n19], To this end, he proposed a single legislative chamber in which each State, as in the Confederation, was to have an equal vote. 55.Smiley v. Holm, 285 U.S. 355, and its two companion cases, Koenig v. Flynn, 285 U.S. 375; Carroll v. Becker, 285 U.S. 380, on which my Brother CLARK relies in his separate opinion, ante pp. Since I believe that the Constitution expressly provides that state legislatures and the Congress shall have exclusive jurisdiction over problems of congressional apportionment of the kind involved in this case, there is no occasion for me to consider whether, in the absence of such provision, other provisions of the Constitution, relied on by the appellants, would confer on them the rights which they assert. I dont care. Bakers argument stated that because the districts had not been redrawn and the rural district had ten times fewer people, the rural votes essentially counted more denying him equal protection of the law. I, 2, of the Constitution gives no mandate to this Court or to any court to ordain that congressional districts within each State must be equal in population. 653,954195,551458,403, Connecticut(6). However, Australias constitution is constitutively more democratic than the American. 4340, and H.R. 1343(3), asking that the Georgia statute be declared invalid and that the appellees, the Governor and Secretary of State of Georgia, be enjoined from conducting elections under it. [n20] A number of delegates supported this plan. 1836) (hereafter Elliot's Debates), 11. . . . We therefore hold that the District Court erred in dismissing the complaint. ; H.R. Section 5. The difference between the largest and smallest districts in Connecticut is, however, 370,613. 539,618312,890226,728, Washington(7). Cf. 16.See, e.g., id. [n53] None of them became law. ." It took only two years for 26 states to ratify new apportionment plans with respect to population counts. 6-7. The other side of the compromise was that, as provided in Art. at 322, 446-449, 486, 527-528 (James Madison of Virginia); id. Spitzer, Elianna. . There is nothing to indicate any limitation whatsoever on this grant of plenary initial and supervisory power. Whatever the dominant political philosophy at the Convention, one thing seems clear: it is in the last degree unlikely that most or even many of the delegates would have subscribed to the [p31] principle of "one person, one vote," ante, p. 18. This provision reinforces the evident constitutional scheme of leaving to the Congress the protection of federal interests involved in the selection of members of the Congress. Although there is little discussion of the reasons for omitting the requirement of equally populated districts, the fact that such a provision was included in the bill as it was presented to the House, [n49] and was deleted by the House after debate and notice of intention to do so, [n50][p44] leaves no doubt that the omission was deliberate. 33.Id. 15, 18, fairly supports its holding. A challenge brought under the Equal Protection Clause to malapportionment of state legislatures is not a political question and is justiciable. . I, which states simply: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. As in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, which involved alleged malapportionment of seats in a state legislature, the District Court had jurisdiction of the subject matter; appellants had standing to sue, and they had stated a justiciable cause of action on which relief could be granted. The statute offered a way for Tennessee to handle apportionment of senators and representatives as its population shifted and grew. Comparing Australian and American federal jurisprudence. [n45][p17]. The districts are those used in the election of the current 88th Congress. & Pa. have 42/90 of the votes, they can do as they please without a miraculous Union of the other ten; that they will have nothing to do but to gain over one of the ten to make them compleat masters of the rest. 287 U.S. at 7. the Constitution has conferred upon Congress exclusive authority to secure fair representation by the States in the popular House. [n35] Without such power, Wilson stated, the state governments might "make improper regulations" or "make no regulations at all." Representatives were to be apportioned among the States on the basis of free population plus three-fifths of the slave population. at 461-462 (William Samuel Johnson). Wesberry v. Sanders is a landmark case because it mandated that congressional districts throughout the country must be roughly equal in population. This view was articulated in the landmark Engineers case, which held that the federal government could employ its industrial arbitration power (s. 51(xxxv)) to regulate the employment conditions of state employees (Amalgamated Society of Engineers v. Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd, (1920) 28 C.L.R. What is done today saps the political process. 11. In the Pennsylvania convention, James Wilson described Art. PS-110 Chp. The shortness of the time remaining [before the next election] makes it doubtful whether action could, or would, be taken in time to secure for petitioners the effective relief they seek. 2648, 82d Cong., 1st Sess. [n4] The cause there of the alleged "debasement" of votes for state legislators -- districts containing widely varying numbers of people -- was precisely that which was alleged to debase votes for Congressmen in Colegrove v. Green, supra, and in the present case. . [n55][p47]. . Compare N.J.Const., 1776, Art. The electors are to be the great body of the people of the United States. The decision remains significant to this day because this case had set history for the political power of urban population areas. I, 2, reveals that those who framed the Constitution [p9] meant that, no matter what the mechanics of an election, whether statewide or by districts, it was population which was to be the basis of the Hose of Representatives. The key difference between the facts of Baker v. Carr and Wesberry v. Sanders is that the first decided on Representative district while the latter decided on the court that can rule of redistricting. . [p3], Claiming that these population disparities deprived them and voters similarly situated of a right under the Federal Constitution to have their votes for Congressmen given the same weight as the votes of other Georgians, the appellants brought this action under 42 U.S.C. Baker claimed the malapportionment of state legislatures is justiciable and the state of Tennessee argued such an issue is a political question not capable of being decided by the courts. But if they be regulated properly by the state legislatures, the congressional control will very probably never be exercised. . WebCarr (1962) and Wesberry v. Sanders (1964) established that all electoral districts of state legislatures and the United States House of Representatives must be equal in size by . WebWesberry v. Sanders. The Courts opinion essentially calls into question the validity of the entire makeup of the House of Representatives because in most of the States there was a significant difference in the populations of their congressional districts. It was found impossible to fix the time, place, and manner, of the election of representatives in the Constitution. Further, it goes beyond the province of the Court to decide this case. The House of Representatives, the Convention agreed, was to represent the people as individuals, and on a basis of complete equality for each voter. The passage from which the Court quotes, ante, p. 18, concludes with the following, overlooked by the Court: They [the electors] are to be the same who exercise the right in every State of electing the correspondent branch of the Legislature of the State. equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids . [p45]. . It was impossible to foresee all the abuses that might be made of the discretionary power. Each time redistricting plans were drawn up in accordance with the federal census and put to a vote, they failed to get enough votes to pass. . The Great Compromise concerned representation of the States in the Congress. See Luce, Legislative Principles (1930), 356-357. 13, 14. . The following data were collected on the number of nonconformities per unit for 10 time periods: TimeNonconformitiesperUnitTimeNonconformitiesperUnit176523733685439254100\begin{array}{cc|cc} (d) Any Representative elected to the Congress from a district which does not conform to the requirements set forth in subsection (c) of this section shall be denied his seat in the House of Representatives and the Clerk of the House shall refuse his credentials. Textually demonstrable constitutional commitment to another political branch; Lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving the issue; Impossibility of deciding the issue without making an initial policy determination of a kind not suitable for judicial discretion; Unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made; or. . 1081 (remarks of Mr. Moser). The sharpest objection arose out of the fear on the part of small States like Delaware that, if population were to be the only basis of representation, the populous States like Virginia would elect a large enough number of representatives to wield overwhelming power in the National Government. And, considering the state governments and general government as distinct bodies, acting in different and independent capacities for the people, it was thought the particular regulations should be submitted to the former, and the general regulations to the latter. 57 (Cooke ed.1961), at 385. I believe that the court erred in so doing. In every State, a certain proportion of inhabitants are deprived of this right by the Constitution of the State, who will be included in the census by which the Federal Constitution apportions the representatives. Moreover, Australia has no national bill of rights, only a few scattered guarantees. In New York City, a single executive is popularly elected and he or she appoints officials in charge of various departments.

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