similarities between baker v carr and wesberry v sanders 21 Nov similarities between baker v carr and wesberry v sanders

. The Court does have the power to decide this case, in contrast to Justice Harlans dissent. (University of Toronto Press 2017), the two having the most similar constitutions are, arguably, Australia and the United States. . . He developed a six prong test to guide the Court in future decisions regarding whether or not a question is "political." 328 U.S. at 565. I, 4. cit. . Section 4. One of the three judges on the panel dissented from the result. 6, c. 66, Second Schedule, and of 1958, 6 & 7 Eliz. Cf. 1836) (hereafter Elliot's Debates), 11. . At that hearing, the court should apply the standards laid down in Baker v. Carr, supra. . 41.See, e.g., 2 The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (2d Elliot ed. The complaint also fails to adequately show Tennessees current system of apportionment is so arbitrary and capricious as to violate the Equal Protection Clause. Wilson urged that people must be represented as individuals, so that America would escape [p15] the evils of the English system, under which one man could send two members to Parliament to represent the borough of Old Sarum, while London's million people sent but four. Whether the electors should vote by ballot or viva voce, should assemble at this place or that place, should be divided into districts or all meet at one place, shd all vote for all the representatives, or all in a district vote for a number allotted to the district, these & many other points would depend on the Legislatures. Section 2 was not mentioned. Justice William Brennan delivered the 6-2 decision. . 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. H.R. The reasons which led to these conclusions in Baker are equally persuasive here. For a period of about 50 years, therefore, Congress, by repeated legislative act, imposed on the States the requirement that congressional districts be equal in population. Potential for embarrassment for differing pronouncements of the issue by different branches of government. [n24], In the New York convention, during the discussion of 4, Mr. Jones objected to congressional power to regulate elections because such power, might be so construed as to deprive the states of an essential right, which, in the true design of the Constitution, was to be reserved to them. Far from supporting the Court, the apportionment of Representatives among the States shows how blindly the Court has marched to its decision. (For more detail, see here). Some of them, of course, would ordinarily come from districts the populations of which were about that which would result from an apportionment based solely on population. . An issue is considered a non-justiciable political question when one of six tests are met: This claim does not meet any of the six tests and is justiciable. . 17 Law & Contemp.Prob. . 6. Such discriminatory legislation seems to me exactly the kind that the equal protection clause was intended to prohibit. . [n4] Thus, today's decision impugns the validity of the election of 398 Representatives from 37 States, leaving a "constitutional" House of 37 members now sitting. 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. I, 2, members of the House of Representatives should be chosen "by the People of the several States," and should be "apportioned among the several States . The justification for this would be that pollution is a collective-action problem, so the federal government is in the best position to address it. [sic] and might materially affect the appointments. Comparing Australian and American federal jurisprudence. [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. . according to their respective Numbers." constructing the interstate highway system. Federal courts have heard challenges to the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010's mandate that all individuals have health insurance. 57 (Cooke ed.1961), at 389. [n39]. . Chief Justice Earl Warren called Baker v. Carr the most important case of his tenure on the Supreme Court. The fact is, however, that Georgia's 10 Representatives are elected "by the People" of Georgia, just as Representatives from other States are elected "by the People of the several States." This is not a case in which the Court vindicates the kind of individual rights that are assured by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, whose "vague contours," Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 170, of course, leave much room for constitutional developments necessitated by changing conditions in a dynamic society. 482,872375,475107,397, Mississippi(5). Mr. Justice Rutledge, in Colgerove, believed that the Court should exercise its equitable discretion to refuse relief because. WebBaker v. Carr, supra, considered a challenge to a 1901 Tennessee statute providing for apportionment of State Representatives and Senators under the State's constitution, which called for apportionment among counties or districts 'according to the number of qualified electors in each.' . Yet, even here, the U.S. model was influential. 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 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. 57 (Cooke ed.1961), 389. I, 2, for election of Representatives "by the People" means that congressional districts are to be, "as nearly as is practicable," equal in population, ante, pp. [p5]. In my view, we should therefore vacate this judgment and remand the case for a hearing [p20] on the merits. Ames' remark at the Massachusetts convention is typical: "The representatives are to represent the people." It goes without saying that it is beyond the province of this Court to decide whether equally populated districts is the preferable method for electing Representatives, whether state legislatures would have acted more fairly or wisely had they adopted such a method, or whether Congress has been derelict in not requiring state legislatures to follow that course. I love them.. . at 193, 342-343 (Roger Sherman); id. at 253-254, 406, 449-450, 482-484 (James Wilson of Pennsylvania). More recently, the Court has interpreted the corporations power (s. 51(xx)) as allowing the federal government to regulate any corporate activities, including contracts with employees, despite the deliberately limited federal power to regulate employment relations through industrial arbitration (s. 51 (xxxv)). Together, they elect 15 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. [n35] Without such power, Wilson stated, the state governments might "make improper regulations" or "make no regulations at all." See also the remarks of Mr. Graham. The fallacy of the Court's reasoning in this regard is illustrated by its slide, obscured by intervening discussion (see ante pp. Which best describes Federalism as a political system? 21.E.g., 1 id. "Baker v. Carr: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact." . This decision requires each state to draw its U.S. Congressional districts so that they are approximately equal in population. The voters alleged that the apportionment scheme violated several provisions of the Constitution, including Art I, sec 2. and the Fourteenth Amendment. Contrary to the Court's statement, ante, p. 18, no reader of The Federalist "could have fairly taken . 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." 18-19, are equally irrelevant. See Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962) 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. 497,669182,845314,824, Tennessee(9). [n15] Moreover, the statements approving population-based representation were focused on the problem of how representation should be apportioned among the States in the House of Representatives. Not only can this right to vote not be denied outright, it cannot, consistently with Article I, be destroyed by alteration of ballots, see United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, or diluted by stuffing of the ballot box, see United States v. Saylor, 322 U.S. 385. . at 50-51 (Rufus King, Massachusetts); 3 id. at 437-438, 439-441, 444-445, 453-455 (Luther Martin of Maryland); id. . . . 4. at 324 (Alexander Martin of North Carolina), id. Baker v. Carr (1962) was a landmark case concerning re-apportionment and redistricting. . . The design of a legislative district which results in one vote counting more than another is the kind of invidious discrimination the Equal Protection Clause was developed to prevent. Those who thought that one branch should represent wealth were told by Roger Sherman of Connecticut that the. Neither of the numbers of The Federalist from which the Court quotes, ante, pp. Likewise, in interpreting the non-establishment clause, Australias court has maintained the older American view that the clause prohibits the establishment of an official state church but allows non-discriminatory aid to be given to religious schools and other organizations. But since the slaves added to the representation only of their own State, Representatives [p28] from the slave States could have been thought to speak only for the slaves of their own States, indicating both that the Convention believed it possible for a Representative elected by one group to speak for another nonvoting group and that Representatives were in large degree still thought of as speaking for the whole population of a State. . 11725, 70th Cong., 1st Sess., introduced on Mar. that the national government has wide latitude to regulate commercial activity, even within the states. [n22]. . 653,954195,551458,403, Connecticut(6). Elections are regulated now unequally in some states, particularly South Carolina, with respect to Charleston, [p38] which is represented by thirty members. Indeed, as one of the grounds there relied on to support our holding that state apportionment controversies are justiciable, we said: . The constitutional right which the Court creates is manufactured out of whole cloth. 2 of the Constitution, which states that Representatives be chosen by the People of the several States. Allowing for huge disparities in population between districts would violate that fundamental principle. . at 357. 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. Materials supplementary to the debates are as unequivocal. That right is based in Art I, sec. 1343(3), asking that the apportionment statute be declared invalid and that appellees, the Governor and Secretary of State, be enjoined from conducting elections under it. At the Massachusetts convention, Judge Dana approved 4 because it gave Congress power to prevent a state legislature from copying Great Britain, where, a borough of but two or three cottages has a right to send two representatives to Parliament, while Birmingham, a large and populous manufacturing town, lately sprung up, cannot send one. This insistence on the equality of the states, combined with a desire to create a federal government that would represent the people of the federation as a whole, meant that in both countries the federal legislature consists of a House of Representatives and a Senate. 1081 (remarks of Mr. Moser). In No. In all of the discussion surrounding the basis of representation of the House and all of the discussion whether Representatives should be elected by the legislatures or the people of the States, there is nothing which suggests [p32] even remotely that the delegates had in mind the problem of districting within a State. While the majority is correct that congressional districting is something that courts can decide, the case should be remanded so the lower court can hold a hearing on the merits based on the standards provided in Baker v Carr. 572,654317,973254,681, Virginia(10). Spitzer, Elianna. 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. Tennessee claimed that redistricting was a political question and could not be decided by the courts under the Constitution. 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. [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. [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. 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. . 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. Despite a swell in population, certain urban areas were still receiving the same amount of representatives as rural areas with far less voters. 13. . Many of the most important powers conferred on the federal legislature are essentially the same, or very similar, to those in the United States: taxation; trade and commerce with other countries and among the states; borrowing money; naturalization; bankruptcy; coinage; weights and measures; postal services; copyrights and patents; and defense. ; H.R. [p24]. 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. discrimination. . . I], not only as those powers were necessary for preserving the union, but also for securing to the people their equal rights of election. . a group of citizens proposes a law banning gay marriage in a state, which the public then votes on in an election. Also, every State was to have "at Least one Representative." . If, on remand, the trial court is of the opinion that there is likelihood of the General Assembly's reapportioning the State in an appropriate manner, I believe that coercive relief should be deferred until after the General Assembly has had such an opportunity. 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. As the Court repeatedly emphasizes, delegates to the Philadelphia Convention frequently expressed their view that representation should be based on population. It is not surprising that our Court has held that this Article gives persons qualified to vote a constitutional right to vote and to have their votes counted. [n28][p37] He explained further that his proposal was not intended to impose a requirement on the other States, but "to enable the states to act their discretion without the control of Congress." [n28] It provided, on the one hand, that each State, including little Delaware and Rhode Island, was to have two Senators. Is the standard an absolute or relative one, and, if the latter, to what is the difference in population to be related? 478,962376,336102,626, Michigan(19). . Mr. Justice Frankfurter's Colegrove opinion contended that Art. . . . Baker's suit detailed how Tennessee's reapportionment efforts ignored significant economic growth This court case was a very critical point in the legal fightfor the principle of One man, one vote. . Act of June 25, 1842, 2, 5 Stat. . supposes that the State Legislatures will sometimes fail or refuse to consult the common interest at the expense of their local conveniency or prejudices. . 4054. We hold that, construed in its historical context, the command of Art. [n23], Mr. PARSONS contended for vesting in Congress the powers contained in the 4th section [of Art. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. . [n26] Mr. Smith proposed to add to the resolution, . . Does the number of districts within the State have any relevance? [p33] Whenever the State Legislatures had a favorite measure to carry, they would take care so to mould their regulations as to favor the candidates they wished to succeed. [n6][p25]. What is the most valid criticism of this study? [n48]. 735; Act of Jan. 16, 1901, 3, 31 Stat. I would enter an additional caveat. 3. 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.". XIII, with N.J.Const., 1844, Art. . PS-110 Chp. 54, at 368. I, sec. (For a book-length discussion, see here.). Disclaiming all reliance on other provisions of the Constitution, in particular, those of the Fourteenth Amendment on which the appellants relied below and in this Court, the Court holds that the provision in Art. By its slide, obscured by intervening discussion ( see ante pp far from supporting the Court in future regarding... Typical: `` the Representatives are to represent the people. of this study introduced on.. Carr the most similar constitutions are, arguably, Australia and the Fourteenth.... Wide latitude to regulate commercial activity, even here, the Court should apply the standards laid in. 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