Reapportionment in the Courts

Archive Report

Test Of Malapportionment in High Court

Urban Dwellers, seeking representation in state legislatures that will be more nearly in proportion to their rapidly mounting numbers, are turning for assistance to the courts. Some state and federal tribunals, responding to such appeals, have ventured into the so-called political thicket of legislative apportionment despite earlier court decisions that have seemed to bar the way. The Supreme Court now has before it an appeal by a group of Tennessee voters from the decision of a three-judge federal court that found it lacked power to order reapportionment of seats in the state legislature. Oral arguments in the case (Baker v. Carr) were heard on April 19 and 20. A decision had been expected before the end of the current ...

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