54, at 368. Justice Harlan further argued that the Convention debates were clear to the effect that Article I, § 4, had vested exclusive control over state districting practices in Congress and that the Court action overrode a congressional decision not to require equally populated districts. ^39  The Federalist, No. I had not expected to witness the day when the Supreme Court of the United States would render a decision which casts grave doubt on the constitutionality of the composition of the House of Representatives. In an opinion authored by Hugo L. Black, the 6-3 majority held that the district court had jurisdiction because debasement of the right to vote as a result of a state congressional apportionment law was justiciable and not subject to dismissal for "want of equity." Mr. Justice Frankfurter's Colegrove opinion contended that Art. [30] The Constitution embodied Edmund Randolph's proposal for a periodic census to ensure 'fair representation of the people,' [31] an idea endorsed by Mason as assuring that 'numbers of inhabitants' should always be the measure of representation in the House of Representatives. The court also held that cases involving malapportionment (i.e., a practice that prevents a constituency from having equal representation in government) are justiciable. Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 US 1 Landmark US House Reapportionment Case: POLITICS - MY FIRST CAMPAIGN 1961: POLITICS - ELECTION TO GEORGIA STATE SENATE 1962: Press Clips from Georgia Senate Service: The Best Speech I Ever Made: Why I Quit the Georgia Senate: Activities in the Junior Chamber of Commerce [34], It would defeat the principle solemnly embodied in the Great Compromise-equal representation in the House for equal numbers of people-for us to hold that, within the States, legislatures may draw the lines of congressional districts in such a way as to give some voters a greater voice in choosing a Congressman than others. The population of the smallest, Georgia's Ninth Congressional District, was 272,154. No. ^38  See, e.g., 2 Works of Alexander Hamilton (Lodge ed. Justice John M. Harlan, in dissent, rather persuasively pointed out that such a conclusion could hardly be drawn from the intent of the framers—as Black had argued—or from Congressional actions that had, rather pointedly in the 1929 reapportionment act, deleted the requirement of five previous acts that congressional districts be equal in population. 'Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

if(document.getElementsByClassName("reference").length==0) if(document.getElementById('Footnotes')!==null) document.getElementById('Footnotes').parentNode.style.display = 'none'; Communications: Kristen Vonasek • Kayla Harris • Megan Brown • Mary Dunne • Sarah Groat • Heidi Jung ^3  'We do not deem (Colegrove v. Green) * * * to be a precedent for dismissal based on the nonjusticiability of a political question involving the Congress as here, but we do deem it to be strong authority for dismissal for want of equity when the following factors here involved are considered on balance: a political question involving a coordinate branch of the federal government; a political question posing a delicate problem difficult of solution without depriving others of the right to vote by district, unless we are to redistrict for the state; relief may be forthcoming from a properly apportioned state legislature; and relief may be afforded by the Congress.' ^28  See id., at 193, 342-343 (Roger Sherman); id., at 461-462 (William Samuel Johnson). Wesberry alleged that this disparity diluted the impact of his vote relative to Georgians in less populous districts, as each district, regardless of population, elects a single representative. According to the 1960 United States Census, the population of Georgia's Fifth Congressional District, in which Wesberry resided, was 823,680. I, § 4, [43] was meant to be used to vindicate the people's right to equality of representation in the House. ^44  See 2 Elliot, at 49 (Francis Dana, in the Massachusetts Convention); id., at 5 -51 (Rufus King, Massachusetts); 3 id., at 367 (James Madison, Virginia). Choose from 319 different sets of wesberry v sanders flashcards on Quizlet. 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. [2]. 1432. ^16  See, e.g., id., at 197-198 (Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania); id., at 467 (Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts); id., at 286, 465-466 (Alexander Hamilton of New York); id., at 489-490 (Rufus King of Massachusetts); id., at 322, 446-449, 486, 527-528 (James Madison of Virginia); id., at 180, 456 (Hugh Williamson of North Carolina); id., at 253-254, 406, 449-450, 482-484 (James Wilson of Pennsylvania). The district court decision was appealed the Supreme Court of the United States, which heard oral arguments November 18 and 19, 1963. * * *' U.S.Const., Art. 105). Wesberry v. Sanders Opinion of the Court by Hugo Black. He relied on Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 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. Prob. 1961), at 385. I, § 2. 'We have been told (with a dictatorial air) that this is the last moment for a fair trial in favor of a good Government. 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. Black, joined by Warren, Douglas, Brennan, White, Goldberg, This page was last edited on 30 October 2019, at 15:00. 596. [28] It provided on the one hand that each State, including little Delaware and Rhode Island, was to have two Senators. [3] Judge Tuttle, disagreeing with the court's reliance on that opinion, dissented from the dismissal, though he would have denied an injunction at that time in order to give the Georgia Legislature ample opportunity to correct the 'abuses' in the apportionment. 1031, 85 L.Ed. [5] 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 (3) that the plaintiffs had stated a justiciable cause of action on which relief could be granted. 1896) 15. External Relations: Alison Prange • Sara Key • Sarah Rosier • Kari Berger We agree with Judge Tuttle that in debasing the weight of appellants' votes the State has abridged the right to vote for members of Congress guaranteed them by the United States Constitution, that the District Court should have entered a declaratory judgment to that effect, and that it was therefore error to dismiss this suit. This rule is followed automatically, of course, when Representatives are chosen as a group on a statewide basis, as was a widespread practice in the first 50 years of our Nation's history.

The case was heard by a three-judge District Court, which found unanimously, from facts not disputed, that: 'It is clear by any standard * * * that the population of the Fifth District is grossly out of balance with that of the other nine congressional districts of Georgia and in fact, so much so that the removal of DeKalb and Rockdale Counties from the District, leaving only Fulton with a population of 556,326, would leave it exceeding the average by slightly more than forty per cent.' [26] The deadlock was finally broken when a majority of the States agreed to what has been called the Great Compromise, [27] based on a proposal which had been repeatedly advanced by Roger Sherman and other delegates from Connecticut. 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. In urging the people to adopt the Constitution, Madison said in No. I, § 2, of the Constitution of the United States, which provides that 'The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States * * *'; (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 * * *.'. 206 F.Supp., at 285 (footnote omitted). ». Cf. [1], Writing in dissent, Justice Harlan argued that the statements cited by Justice Black had uniformly been in the context of the Great Compromise. 1198, 90 L.Ed. Art. Like the members of an ancient Greek league, each State, without regard to size or population, was given only one vote in that house. 376 U.S. 1 (1964), argued 18–19 Nov. 1963, decided 17 Feb. 1964 by vote of 7 to 2; Black for the Court, Clark concurring in part and dissenting in part, Harlan in dissent. Wesberry was the first real test of the "reapportionment revolution" set in motion by Baker v.Carr (1962), in which the Supreme Court held that federal courts could rule on reapportionment questions.. James P. Wesberry, Jr., was one of the citizens of Fulton County, Georgia, who filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia challenging the state apportionment law. 'Rotten boroughs' have long since disappeared in Great Britain. The electors are to be the great body of the people of the United States. Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, 381, 83 S.Ct. One district, the Ninth, has only 272,154 people, less than one-third as many as the Fifth. Justice Stewart stated that he joined with Mr. Justice Harlan's dissent except insofar as there might be implied in that dissent the view that the issues were not justiciable. Wesberry involved a challenge by voters in Georgia's Fifth Congressional District, the population of which was two to three times greater than that of other congressional districts. 807, concerned the choice of Representatives in the Federal Congress. In an opinion authored by Hugo L. Black, the 6-3 majority held that the district court had jurisdiction because debasement of the right to vote as a result of a state congressional apportionment law was justiciable and not subject to dismissal for "want of equity." at 694, 7 L.Ed.2d 663. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.