. This court case was a very critical point in the legal fightfor the principle of One man, one vote. 1081 (remarks of Mr. Moser). I would enter an additional caveat. The Court followed these precedents in Colegrove, although over the dissent of three of the seven Justices who participated in that decision. The distribution of powers between the federal and state governments assumes that the states retained the powers they had at federation, subject only to the specific powers conferred on the federal government. 9. 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. Hacker, Congressional Districting (1963), 7-8. . Despite this careful, advertent attention to the problem of congressional districting, Art. 5099, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. Justice Brennan drew a line between "political questions" and "justiciable questions" by defining the former. [n23], The dispute came near ending the Convention without a Constitution. supra, 93-96. (Emphasis added.) [n38] This statement was offered simply to show that the slave [p40] population could not reasonably be included in the basis of apportionment of direct taxes and excluded from the basis of apportionment of representation. . . Does the number of districts within the State have any relevance? Australias high court has opined that the states must continue to exist as separate governments exercising independent functions (Melbourne Corporation v. Commonwealth, (1947) 74 CLR 31, 83). 333,290299,15634,134, Ohio(24). [n8] Although many, perhaps most, of them also believed generally -- but assuredly not in the precise, formalistic way of the majority of the Court [n9] -- that, within the States, representation should be based on population, they did not surreptitiously slip their belief into the Constitution in the phrase "by the People," to be discovered 175 years later like a Shakespearian anagram. Are there any special causes of variation ? 25, 1940, 54 Stat. . 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. WebWesberry v. Sanders (1964) Case Summary. Popularity with the representative's constituents. 660,345237,235423,110, Georgia(10). [n52] Bills which would have imposed on the States a requirement of equally or nearly equally populated districts were regularly introduced in the House. . The District Court was wrong to find that the Fifth district voters presented a purely political question which could not be decided by a court, and should be dismissed for want of equity. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, supports the principle that voters have standing to sue with regard to apportionment matters, and that such claims are justiciable. . ." Which of the following was a reason the framers of the Constitution created a federal system of government? at 193, 342-343 (Roger Sherman); id. [n41]. Smiley v. Holm presented two questions: the first, answered in the negative, was whether the provision in Art. . As there stated: It was manifestly the intention of the Congress not to reenact the provision as to compactness, contiguity, and equality in population with respect to the districts to be created pursuant to the reapportionment under the Act of 1929. This is the "historical context" which the Convention debates provide. . . All that there is is a provision which bases representation in the House, generally but not entirely, on the population of the States. [n55][p47]. [n14], If the power is not immediately derived from the people in proportion to their numbers, we may make a paper confederacy, but that will be all. As my Brother BLACK said in his dissent in Colegrove v. Green, supra, the. None of those cases has the slightest bearing on the present situation. University of Colorado engineers used a probabilistic model to forecast the inspection ratings of all major bridges in Denver (Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, February 2005). [n14] Such expressions prove as little on one side of this case as they do on the other. . Thus, in the number of The Federalist which does discuss the regulation of elections, the view is unequivocally stated that the state legislatures have plenary power over the conduct of congressional elections subject only to such regulations as Congress itself might provide. . It established the right of federal courts to review redistricting issues, when just a few years earlier such matter werecategorized as political questions outside the jurisdiction of the courts. The figure is obtained by dividing the population base (which excludes the population of the District of Columbia, the population of the Territories, and the number of Indians not taxed) by the number of Representatives. The one thing that one person, one vote decisions could not effect was the use of gerrymandering. 4820, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. . 2, Government in America: Elections and Updates Edition, George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, Robert L. Lineberry, Christina Dejong, Christopher E. Smith, George F Cole, federalism (chapter four) multiple choice que. 530,507404,695125,812, NewHampshire(2). "Baker v. Carr: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact." Appellants are citizens and qualified voters of Fulton County, Georgia, and as such are entitled to vote in congressional elections in Georgia's Fifth Congressional District. The dissenting and concurring opinions confuse which issues are presented in this case. 56. 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. . [n34]) Steele was concerned with the danger of congressional usurpation, under the authority of 4, of power belonging to the States. Tennessee claimed that redistricting was a political question and could not be decided by the courts under the Constitution. Voters in the Fifth district sued the Governor and Secretary of State of Georgia, seeking to invalidate Georgias apportionment structure because their votes were given less weight compared to voters in other districts. . Reflecting this, the preamble to the Constitution recites that the people of each state agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth. The federation was expressed to be indissoluble lest Americas experience with secession ever be contemplated in Australia. Our Constitution leaves no room for classification of people in a way that unnecessarily abridges [p18] this right. 18-19, are equally irrelevant. ; H.R. The policy of referring the appointment of the House of Representatives to the people, and not to the Legislatures of the States, supposes that the result will be somewhat influenced by the mode, [sic] This view of the question seems to decide that the Legislatures of the States ought not to have the uncontrouled right of regulating the times places & manner of holding elections. The Court issued its ruling on February 17, 1964. So far as Article I is concerned, it is within the State's power to confer that right only on persons of wealth or of a particular sex or, if the State chose, living in specified areas of the State. In some of the States, the difference is very material. Soon after the Constitution was adopted, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, by then an Associate Justice of this Court, gave a series of lectures at Philadelphia in which, drawing on his experience as one of the most active members of the Constitutional Convention, he said: [A]ll elections ought to be equal. [n5] After full consideration of Colegrove, the Court in Baker held (1) that the District Court had jurisdiction of the subject matter; (2) that the qualified Tennessee voters there had standing to sue; and [p6] (3) that the plaintiffs had stated a justiciable cause of action on which relief could be granted. The Congressional Record reports that this statement was followed by applause. The acts in question were filing false election returns, United States v. Mosley, 238 U.S. 383, alteration of ballots and false certification of votes, United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, and stuffing the ballot box, United States v. Saylor, 322 U.S. 385. Elianna Spitzer is a legal studies writer and a former Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism research assistant. 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. But, as one might expect when the Constitution itself is free from ambiguity, the surrounding history makes what is already clear even clearer. See Luce, Legislative Principles (1930), 356-357. I, 2, lays down the ipse dixit "one person, one vote" in congressional elections. 54, at 368. at 50-51 (Rufus King, Massachusetts); 3 id. I, 3, and it was specially provided in Article V that no State should ever be deprived of its equal representation in the Senate. 3, 1928, 69 Cong.Rec. The two countries are excellent test cases for comparing federal constitutions precisely because they are so similar and yet different. [n46]. 497,669182,845314,824, Tennessee(9). 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. 26.Id. 726,156236,288489,868, Oklahoma(6). WebWesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964) was a U.S. Supreme Court case involving U.S. Congressional districts in the state of Georgia. . Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. 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. 505,465463,80041,665, Maryland(8). Which best describes Federalism as a political system? Baker v. Carr: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact - ThoughtCo . This is all that the Constitution requires. The Australian federation, like the American, was formed through an agreement among delegates of distinct, self-governing states. . Id. Believing that the complaint fails to disclose a constitutional claim, I would affirm the judgment below dismissing the complaint. [n40] In the state conventions, speakers urging ratification of the Constitution emphasized the theme of equal representation in the House which had permeated the debates in Philadelphia. However, Australias constitution is constitutively more democratic than the American. 46. 471,001350,186120,815, NorthCarolina(11). . The extent to which the Court departs from accepted principles of adjudication is further evidenced by the irrelevance to today's issue of the cases on which the Court relies. Nor is this a case in which an emergent set of facts requires the Court to frame new principles to protect recognized constitutional rights. 7. [n35] Without such power, Wilson stated, the state governments might "make improper regulations" or "make no regulations at all." It is surely beyond debate that the Constitution did not require the slave States to apportion their Representatives according to the dispersion of slaves within their borders. H.R. For the statutory standards under which these commissions operate, see House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Acts of 1949, 12 13 Geo. 328 U.S. at 554. Id. 841; 87th Cong., 1st Sess. (This, of course, is the very requirement which the Court now declares to have been constitutionally required of the States all along without implementing legislation.) Is the standard an absolute or relative one, and, if the latter, to what is the difference in population to be related? at 461-462 (William Samuel Johnson). At that hearing, the court should apply the standards laid down in Baker v. Carr, supra. Elected politicians are the real locus of executive power. She has also worked at the Superior Court of San Francisco's ACCESS Center. When interpretations of the two constitutions are compared, despite important similarities, the influence of differences in politics, history, and context is also apparent. Australian justices have insisted that the commerce regulated under the interstate trade and commerce power really have an interstate character. * Georgia Laws, Sept.-Oct. 1962, Extra.Sess. [n36] Section 2 was not mentioned. . . . . that nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prevent the legislature of any state to pass laws, from time to time, to divide such state into as many convenient districts as the state shall be entitled to elect representatives for Congress, nor to prevent such legislature from making provision, that the electors in each district shall choose a citizen of the United States, who shall have been an inhabitant of the district, for the term of one year immediately preceding the time of his election, for one of the representatives of such state. The companion cases to Smiley v. Holm presented no different issues, and were decided wholly on the basis of the decision in that case. This statement in Baker, which referred to our past decisions holding congressional apportionment cases to be justiciable, we believe was wholly correct, and we adhere to it. If the Federal Constitution intends that, when qualified voters elect members of Congress, each vote be given as much weight as any other vote, then this statute cannot stand. . . . A challenge brought under the Equal Protection Clause to malapportionment of state legislatures is not a political question and is justiciable. Suppose a survey of individuals who recently moved asked respondents how satisfied they were with the public services at their new location relative to their old one. I Farrand 449-450, 457. Although it was held in Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U.S. 651, and subsequent cases, that the right to vote for a member of Congress depends on the Constitution, the opinion noted that the legislatures of the States prescribe the qualifications for electors of the legislatures and thereby for electors of the House of Representatives. . One district, the Ninth, has only 272,154 people, less than one-third as many as the Fifth. Spitzer, Elianna. (Italics added.) Legislature, as it was presumable that the Counties having the power in the former case would secure it to themselves in the latter. [p5]. The status of each state and how the laws applied within were a significant difference in the facts of Baker v. Carr (1962) and Wesberry v. Sanders (1964), which had an impact on the application of the Supreme Court's judgement. I, 2. A) The only difference in the two cases is that The Baker case was related to state legislative districts. at 324 (Alexander Martin of North Carolina), id. . . Ames' remark at the Massachusetts convention is typical: "The representatives are to represent the people." See ante, p. 17, and infra, pp. [n56][p48]. . The cases of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) established what legal precedent? Indeed, most of them interpreted democracy as mob rule, and assumed that equality of representation would permit the spokesmen for the common man to outvote the beleaguered deputies of the uncommon man. The only State in which the average population per district is greater than 500,000 is Connecticut, where the average population per district is 507,047 (one Representative being elected at large). 7-8. . (University of Toronto Press 2017), the two having the most similar constitutions are, arguably, Australia and the United States. [n21] Mr. King noted the situation in Connecticut, where "Hartford, one of their largest towns, sends no more delegates than one of their smallest corporations," and in South Carolina: The back parts of Carolina have increased greatly since the adoption of their constitution, and have frequently attempted an alteration of this unequal mode of representation, but the members from Charleston, having the balance so much in their favor, will not consent to an alteration, and we see that the delegates from Carolina in Congress have always been chosen by the delegates of that city. The state claimed redistricting was a political question and non-justiciable. 663,510198,236465,274, Arkansas(4). The appearance of support in that section derives from the Court's confusion of two issues: direct election of Representatives within the States and the apportionment of Representatives among the States. that each state shall be divided into as many districts as the representatives it is entitled to, and that each representative shall be chosen by a majority of votes. . Which of the following systems of government concentrates the most power at the national level? at 660. Since there is only one Congressman for each district, this inequality of population means that the Fifth District's Congressman has to represent from two to three times as many people as do Congressmen from some of the other Georgia districts. I, 2. . Neither of the numbers of The Federalist from which the Court quotes, ante, pp. [n42] The requirement was later dropped, [n43] and reinstated. . . 3 & 6 & 8 & 5 \\ . Finally in this array of hurdles to its decision which the Court surmounts only by knocking them down is 4 of Art. according to their respective Numbers." 536,029263,850272,179, Maine(2). . James Madison, who took careful and complete notes during the Convention, believed that, in interpreting the Constitution, later generations should consider the history of its adoption: Such were the defects, the deformities, the diseases and the ominous prospects for which the Convention were to provide a remedy and which ought never to be overlooked in expounding & appreciating the Constitutional Charter the remedy that was provided. Did Georgias apportionment statute violate the Constitution by allowing for large differences in population between districts even though each district had one representative? 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