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Baker v. Carr (1962).
This case involved a challenge by a Tennessee voter to his state's
system of legislative districts. For sixty years, Tennessee had not
reapportioned its legislative districts even though population growth
in some of the districts had made the districts unequal in size.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tennessee voters had a right to challenge
their state's failure to reapportion its legislative districts in
light of population changes as a violation of the equal protection
clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The case established the principle that a state's legislative
districts must be apportioned to provide equal protection under the
law.
Full-text of the case is available courtesy of findlaw.com
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=369&invol=186
Reynolds v. Sims (1964)
In this case, voters in several Alabama counties challenged their
state's legislative apportionment provisions, including the provision
that "each county was entitled to at least one representative; each
senate district could have only one member; and no county could be
divided between two senate districts" regardless of the population of
the counties.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Alabama had to arrange its
legislative boundaries in such a way that "the vote of any citizen is
approximately equal in weight to that of any other citizen in the
State." This is often called the "one person, one vote" principle.
Specifically, the case established the principle that "the seats in
both houses of a bicameral state legislature must be apportioned on a
population basis."
Full-text of the case is available courtesy of findlaw.com
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=377&invol=533
Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)
Voters from Georgia's Fifth Congressional District (Fulton County)
challenged their state's apportionment of congressional districts
(i.e., districts for the U.S. House of Representatives). The Fifth
Congressional district had a population of 823,680 in 1960 while other
Georgia districts contained fewer people (as few as 272,154 in one
district).
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Georgia's apportionment of
congressional seats was unconstitutional because it "contracts the
value of some votes and expands that of others."
The case established the principle that a state's congressional
districts must contain an equal number of people.
Full-text of the case is available courtesy of findlaw.com
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=376&invol=1
For more information about the three cases, visit:
"Electoral Districts and American Politics" from
historylearningsite.co.uk:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/electoral_districts.htm
"Equal Population" from the Minnesota state legislature:
http://www.senate.leg.state.mn.us/departments/scr/redist/red2000/ch2equal.htm
"The Reapportionment Revolution" from United States Department of
Justice"
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/voting/intro/intro_a.htm
search strategy: baker carr reynolds simms wesberry sanders
I hope this helps. |
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