. Writing legislation is difficult, and members will let other members do it. 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 . Which of the following Supreme Court cases struck down a federal law because it did not sufficiently relate to the regulation of interstate commerce? 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. (For more detail, see here). 4054. The complaint does not state a claim under Fed. Far from supporting the Court, the apportionment of Representatives among the States shows how blindly the Court has marched to its decision. She has also worked at the Superior Court of San Francisco's ACCESS Center. This dismissal can no more be justified on the ground of "want of equity" than on the ground of "nonjusticiability." The Court's talk about "debasement" and "dilution" of the vote is a model of circular reasoning, in which the premises of the argument feed on the conclusion. The majoritys decision fails to base its holding on both history and existing precedent. Three levels of federal courts Supreme, Circuit (Appellate), Federal district Stare decisis Let the decision stand. Contrary to the Court's statement, ante, p. 18, no reader of The Federalist "could have fairly taken . . . In No. . 54, at 368. I, 2, prevents the state legislatures from districting as they choose? 608,441295,072313,369, Missouri(10). See generally Sait, op. the Constitution has already given decision making power to a specific political department. What form of city government is this? . . See ante, p. 17, and infra, pp. Why would free riding occur in Congressional politics? Indeed, the Court recognized that the Constitution "adopts the qualification" furnished by the States "as the qualification of its own electors for members of Congress." 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. 2.Wesberry v. Vandiver, 206 F.Supp. 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. [n1] In all but five of those States, the difference between [p21] the populations of the largest and smallest districts exceeded 100,000 persons. 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. Which of the following was NOT a provision of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments? . He developed a six prong test to guide the Court in future decisions regarding whether or not a question is "political." . WebKey points. Moreover, by focusing exclusively on numbers in disregard of the area and shape of a congressional district as well as party affiliations within the district, the Court deals in abstractions which will be recognized even by the politically unsophisticated to have little relevance to the realities of political life. 6. From this case forward, all states not just TN were required to redistrict during this time period. . Australian justices have insisted that the commerce regulated under the interstate trade and commerce power really have an interstate character. 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). 4820, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. "; (2) the Due Process, Equal Protection, and Privileges and Immunities Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, and (3) that part of Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment which provides that "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers. 3 The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (Farrand ed.1911) 14 (hereafter cited as "Farrand"). Again, in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 232 (1962), the opinion of the Court recognized that Smiley "settled the issue in favor of justiciability of questions of congressional redistricting." 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. Together, they elect 15 Representatives. . ." . Justice Whittaker recused himself. In a later separate opinion, he emphasized that his vote in Colergove had been based on the "particular circumstances" of that case. It soon became clear that the Confederation was without adequate power to collect needed revenues or to enforce the rules its Congress adopted. . Definition and Examples, Shaw v. Reno: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact, Obergefell v. Hodges: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impacts, Katzenbach v. Morgan: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact, Washington v. Davis: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact, Bolling v. Sharpe: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact, Romer v. Evans: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact, Browder v. Gayle: Court Case, Arguments, Impact. Carr and Wesberry v. Sanders have been argued before Australias High Court. . [n51], Debates over apportionment in subsequent Congresses are generally unhelpful to explain the continued rejection of such a requirement; there are some intimations that the feeling that districting was a matter exclusively for the States persisted. . [n41][p16] Charles Cotesworth Pinckney told the South Carolina Convention, the House of Representatives will be elected immediately by the people, and represent them and their personal rights individually. The 37 "constitutional" Representatives are those coming from the eight States which elected their Representatives at large (plus one each elected at large in Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas) and those coming from States in which the difference between the populations of the largest and smallest districts was less than 100,000. according to their respective Numbers." Soon after the Convention assembled, Edmund Randolph of Virginia presented a plan not merely to amend the Articles of Confederation, but to create an entirely new National Government with a National Executive, National Judiciary, and a National Legislature of two Houses, one house to be elected by "the people," the second house to be elected by the first. The problem was described by Mr. Justice Frankfurter as. The progressive elimination of the property qualification is described in Sait, American Parties and Elections (Penniman ed., 1952), 16-17. 26.Id. . The Court's opinion not only fails to make such a demonstration, it is unsound logically on its face, and demonstrably unsound historically. [it] to mean" that the Constitutional Convention had adopted a principle of "one person, one vote" in contravention of the qualifications for electors which the States imposed. One would expect, at the very least, some reference to Art. . Although the majority below said that the dismissal here was based on "want of equity," and not on nonjusticiability, they relied on no circumstances which were peculiar to the present case; instead, they adopted the language and reasoning of Mr Justice Frankfurter's Colegrove opinion in concluding that the appellants had presented a wholly "political" question. In urging the people to adopt the Constitution, Madison said in No. 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. I, 2, lays down the ipse dixit "one person, one vote" in congressional elections. at 533. [n5][p22]. . Traditionally, particularly in the South, the At that hearing, the court should apply the standards laid down in Baker v. Carr, supra. But nothing in Baker is contradictory to the view that, political question and other objections to "justiciability" aside, the Constitution vests exclusive authority to deal with the problem of this case in the state legislatures and the Congress. The delegates were quite aware of what Madison called the "vicious representation" in Great Britain [n35] whereby "rotten boroughs" with few inhabitants were represented in Parliament on or almost on a par with cities of greater population. There is a further basis for demonstrating the hollowness of the Court's assertion that Article I requires "one man's vote in a congressional election . . . [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. Section 5 of Article I, which provides that "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members," also points away from the Court's conclusion. The history of the Constitution, particularly that part of it relating to the adoption of Art. Before coming to grips with the reasoning that carries such extraordinary consequences, it is important to have firmly in mind the provisions of Article I of the Constitution which control this case: Section 2. 3, 1928, 69 Cong.Rec. 51. I, 2. Id. They have submitted the regulation of elections for the Federal Government in the first instance to the local administrations, which, in ordinary cases, and when no improper views prevail, may be both more convenient and more satisfactory; but they have reserved to the national authority a right to interpose whenever extraordinary circumstances might render that interposition necessary to its safety. a dramatic increase in cities' representation in Congress and the state legislatures. Id. Partly because the Australian list of federal powers is much longer than the American, less emphasis has been placed on Australias commerce power. Believing that the complaint fails to disclose a constitutional claim, I would affirm the judgment below dismissing the complaint. Members of the first are elected from each state in proportion to that states population; in the second, each state is represented by the same number of senators (in Australia, it is currently 12 senators for each state, while the two mainland territories have two senators each). Between 1901 and 1960, the population of Tennessee grew significantly. The House of Representatives, the Convention agreed, was to represent the people as individuals, and on a basis of complete equality for each voter. . ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/baker-v-carr-4774789. Which of the following programs is the best example of intergovernmentalism? The average population of the ten districts is 394,312, less than half that of the Fifth. . This is the "historical context" which the Convention debates provide. 505,465463,80041,665, Maryland(8). [n6]. To say that a vote is worth more in one district than in another would not only run counter to our fundamental ideas of democratic government, it would cast aside the principle of a House of Representatives elected "by the People," a principle tenaciously fought for and established at the Constitutional Convention. But he had in mind only that other clear provision of the Constitution that representation would be apportioned among the States according to population. But a court cannot erase only the districts which do not conform to the standard announced today, since invalidation of those districts would require that the lines of all the districts within the State be redrawn. ." 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. . 951,527216,371735,156, Utah(2). The Court in Baker pointed out that the opinion of Mr. Justice Frankfurter in Colegrove, upon the reasoning of which the majority below leaned heavily in dismissing "for want of equity," was approved by only three of the seven Justices sitting. at 180, 456 (Hugh Williamson of North Carolina); id. I, 2. http://landmarkcases.c-span.org/Case/10/Baker-V-Carrhttps://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/369/186, http://landmarkcases.c-span.org/Case/10/Baker-V-Carr, https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/369/186. The democratic theme is further expressed in the Constitution by the declaration that the two houses of the legislature are to be chosen by the people and by the requirement that the Constitution can be amended only by a majority of electors in both the federation as a whole and a majority of the states. Since no slave voted, the inclusion of three-fifths of their number in the basis of apportionment gave the favored States representation far in excess of their voting population. . . Each of the other three cases cited by the Court, ante, p. 17, similarly involved acts which were prosecuted as violations of federal statutes. 328 U.S. at 565. . . The companion cases to Smiley v. Holm presented no different issues, and were decided wholly on the basis of the decision in that case. that the States being equal cannot treat or confederate so as to give up an equality of votes without giving up their liberty; that the propositions on the table were a system of slavery for 10 States; that as Va. Masts. The delegates were well aware of the problem of "rotten boroughs," as material cited by the Court, ante pp. [n12] In entire disregard of population, Art. ; H.R. 530,507404,695125,812, NewHampshire(2). 2, c. 26, Schedule. . Can the Supreme Court rule on a case regarding apportionment? 12. Hacker, Congressional Districting (1963), 7-8. The voters alleged that the apportionment scheme violated several provisions of the Constitution, including Art I, sec 2. and the Fourteenth Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged probable. 1496. MR. JUSTICE CLARK, concurring in part and dissenting in part. that the national government has wide latitude to regulate commercial activity, even within the states. The unstated premise of the Court's conclusion quite obviously is that the Congress has not dealt, and the Court believes it will not deal, with the problem of congressional apportionment in accordance with what the Court believes to be sound political principles. lie prostrate at the mercy of the legislatures of the several states." A challenge brought under the Equal Protection Clause to malapportionment of state legislatures is not a political question and is justiciable. 588,933301,872287,061, Colorado(4). Is the relevant statistic the greatest disparity between any two districts in the State, or the average departure from the average population per district, or a little of both? If Congress failed in exercising its powers, whereby standards of fairness are offended, the remedy ultimately lies with the people. New Jersey apparently allowed women, as "inhabitants," to vote until 1807. The States which ratified the Constitution exercised their power. . . Neither of the numbers of The Federalist from which the Court quotes, ante, pp. . This decision, coupled with the one person, one vote opinions decided around the same time, had a massive impact on the makeup of the House of Representatives and on electoral politics in general. Id. What was the significance of Baker v Carr 1961? 13. 369 U.S. at 232. Since the difference between the largest and smallest districts in Iowa is 89,250, and the average population per district in Iowa is only 393,934, Iowa's 7 Representatives might well lose their seats as well. 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. References to Old Sarum (ante, p. 15), for example, occurred during the debate on the method of apportionment of Representatives among the States. 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. IV Elliot's Debates 257. People doubt her as a female roofer: Were proving them wrong every day, She rescues baby squirrels: Theyre quite destructive. Baker petitioned to the Supreme Court of the United States. 73, 86th Cong., 1st Sess. In short, in the absence of legislation providing for equal districts by the Georgia Legislature or by Congress, these appellants have no right to the judicial relief which they seek. 57 of The Federalist: Who are to be the electors of the Federal Representatives? The provision for representation of each State in the House of Representatives is not a mere exception to the principle framed by the majority; it shows that no such principle is to be found. 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. . . 40.Id. . [n22]. Did Tennessee deny Baker equal protection when it failed to update its apportionment plan? It opened the door to numerous historic cases in which the Supreme Court tackled questions of voting equality and representation in government. Thorpe, op. supra, 93. None of the Court's references [p34] to the ratification debates supports the view that the provision for election of Representatives "by the People" was intended to have any application to the apportionment of Representatives within the States; in each instance, the cited passage merely repeats what the Constitution itself provides: that Representatives were to be elected by the people of the States. 16. [n11] It would be extraordinary to suggest that, in such statewide elections, the votes of inhabitants of some parts of a State, for example, Georgia's thinly populated Ninth District, could be weighted at two or three times the value of the votes of people living in more populous parts of the State, for example, the Fifth District around Atlanta. The Court's "as nearly as is practicable" formula sweeps a host of questions under the rug. One principle was uppermost in the minds of many delegates: that, no matter where he lived, each voter should have a voice equal to that of every other in electing members of Congress. I, 4. . [sic] and might materially affect the appointments. . The separation of powersespecially the separation of judicial poweris an important principle in Australian constitutional law. It does not permit the States to pick out certain qualified citizens or groups of citizens and deny them the right to vote at all. . Mr. Justice Frankfurter did not, of course, speak for a majority of the Court in Colegrove, but refusal for that reason to give the opinion precedential effect does not justify refusal to give appropriate attention to the views there expressed. Cook v. Fortson, 329 U.S. 675, 678. 13, 14. In Baker v. Carr, the court determined that the legislative apportionment was a legitimate concern, whereas in Wesberry v. Sanders, the court found that Georgia's apportionment plan grossly discriminated against Fifth Congressional District voters because they were 2 to 3 times as numerous and as a result underrepresented in terms of . I Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention (1911) (hereafter Farrand), 48, 86-87, 134-136, 288-289, 299, 533, 534; II Farrand 202. 1128, H.R. In 1901, the Tennessee General Assembly passed an apportionment act. 585,586255,165330,421, NewYork(41). The Federalist, No. 7-8, 18. The principle decided in Marbury v. Madison has always been regarded as axiomatic in Australian constitutional law. [n13] It freezes upon both, for no reason other than that it seems wise to the majority of the present Court, a particular political theory for the selection of Representatives. U.S. 675, 678 fairly taken ground of `` rotten boroughs, as! 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