similarities between baker v carr and wesberry v sanders

. Section 4 states without qualification that the state legislatures shall prescribe regulations for the conduct of elections for Representatives and, equally without qualification, that Congress may make or [p30] alter such regulations. . Yet, each Georgia district was represented by one congressperson in the House of Representatives. Baker petition to the United States Supreme Court. The Australian Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and prohibits any establishment of religion in terms very similar to the U.S. First Amendment. . 10. They thought splitting power across multiple levels of government would prevent tyranny. It cannot be contended, therefore, that the Court's decision today fills a gap left by the Congress. Three levels of federal courts Supreme, Circuit (Appellate), Federal district Stare decisis Let the decision stand. See The Federalist, No. . During the Revolutionary War, the rebelling colonies were loosely allied in the Continental Congress, a body with authority to do little more than pass resolutions and issue requests for men and supplies. . It soon became clear that the Confederation was without adequate power to collect needed revenues or to enforce the rules its Congress adopted. [p24]. 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." Prior cases involving the same subject matter have been decided as nonjusticiable political questions. (We thank the government of Qubec and Forum of Federations for financial and logistical support in producing this book.). There is dubious propriety in turning to the "historical context" of constitutional provisions which speak so consistently and plainly. 13. Cf. Is the standard an absolute or relative one, and, if the latter, to what is the difference in population to be related? supra, 93. 459,706399,78259,924, SouthCarolina(6). Section 4. at 253-254, 406, 449-450, 482-484 (James Wilson of Pennsylvania). Cf. I, 2, prevents the state legislatures from districting as they choose? cit. Act of Feb. 25, 1882, 3, 22 Stat. The United States Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could hear and rule on cases in which plaintiffs allege that re-apportionment plans violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court issued its ruling on February 17, 1964. I, which states simply: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. See Thorpe, op. [n56][p48]. The Australian federation, like the American, was formed through an agreement among delegates of distinct, self-governing states. the Constitution has conferred upon Congress exclusive authority to secure fair representation by the States in the popular House. A question is "political" if: Following these six prongs, Justice Warren concluded that alleged voting inequalities could not be characterized as "political questions" simply because they asserted wrongdoing in the political process. 14-15, and hereafter makes plain. at 663. The rejected thinking of those who supported the proposal to limit western representation is suggested by the statement of Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania that "The Busy haunts of men not the remote wilderness was the proper School of political Talents." 4820, 76th Cong., 1st Sess. . Given these similarities, with certain important differences, the way the two constitutions have been interpreted by the courts offers an interesting study in the influence of textual language, structural relationships, historical intentions, and political values on constitutional interpretation generally. WebAs in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 , which involved alleged malapportionment of seats in a state legislature, the District Court had jurisdiction of the subject matter; appellants had Which of the following clauses in the Constitution gives Congress the authority to make whatever laws are "necessary and proper" in order to execute its enumerated powers? 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. 522,813265,164257,649, Pennsylvania(27). When interpretations of the two constitutions are compared, despite important similarities, the influence of differences in politics, history, and context is also apparent. 41.See, e.g., 2 The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (2d Elliot ed. All districts have roughly equal populations within states. Since the right to vote is inherent in the Constitution, each vote should hold equal weight. Id. Baker, like many other residents in urban areas of Tennessee, found himself in a situation where his vote counted for less due to a lack of representation, his attorneys argued. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative. Typical of recent proposed legislation is H.R. at 322, 446-449, 486, 527-528 (James Madison of Virginia); id. Despite this careful, advertent attention to the problem of congressional districting, Art. 374 U.S. 802. ; H.R. . 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. If Congress failed in exercising its powers, whereby standards of fairness are offended, the remedy ultimately lies with the people. I, 4, of the Constitution [n7] had given Congress "exclusive authority" to protect the right of citizens to vote for Congressmen, [n8] but we made it clear in Baker that nothing in the language of that article gives support to a construction that would immunize state congressional apportionment laws which debase a citizen's right to vote from the power of courts to protect the constitutional rights of individuals from legislative destruction, a power recognized at least since our decision in Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, in 1803. There were no separate judicial or executive branches: only a Congress consisting of a single house. I, 4, [n43]as meant to be used to vindicate the people's right to equality of representation in the House. Tennessee claimed that redistricting was a political question and could not be decided by the courts under the Constitution. Switzerland consists of 26 cantons. The trial court, however, did not pass upon the merits of the case, although it does appear that it did make a finding that the Fifth District of Georgia was "grossly out of balance" with other congressional districts of the State. 3, 1928, 69 Cong.Rec. . . [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. . . WebWesberry v. Sanders by Tom C. Clark Concurrence/dissent. [n36] The delegates referred to rotten borough apportionments in some of the state legislatures as the kind of objectionable governmental action that the Constitution should not tolerate in the election of congressional representatives. . 4 & 3 & 9 & 2 \\ . . 2.Wesberry v. Vandiver, 206 F.Supp. . [n15], Repeatedly, delegates rose to make the same point: that it would be unfair, unjust, and contrary to common sense to give a small number of people as many Senators or Representatives as were allowed to much larger groups [n16] -- in short, as James Wilson of Pennsylvania [p11] put it, "equal numbers of people ought to have an equal no. Carr in 1962, the Supreme Court determined that this sort of population disparity violated the federal constitution. [n22]. However, Art. 34. 21.E.g., 1 id. 2a to provide: (c) Each State entitled to more than one Representative in Congress under the apportionment provided in subsection (a) of this section, shall establish for each Representative a district composed of contiguous and compact territory, and the number of inhabitants contained within any district so established shall not vary more than 10 percentum from the number obtained by dividing the total population of such States, as established in the last decennial census, by the number of Representatives apportioned to such State under the provisions of subsection (a) of this section. I, 2,that Representatives be chosen "by the People of the several States" means that, as nearly as is practicable, one person's vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another's. . [n45], This provision for equal districts which the Court exactly duplicates, in effect, was carried forward in each subsequent apportionment statute through 1911. 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)). (For a book-length discussion, see here.). Smiley v. Holm, 285 U.S. 355, Koenig v. Flynn, 285 U.S. 375, and Carroll v. Becker, 285 U.S. 380, concerned the choice of Representatives in the Federal Congress. United States v. Mosley, 238 U.S. 383; Ex Parte Yarbrough, 110 U.S. 651. How can it be, then, that this very same sentence prevents Georgia from apportioning its Representatives as it chooses? 287 U.S. at 7. [I]t was thought that the regulation of time, place, and manner, of electing the representatives, should be uniform throughout the continent. Remanded to the District Court for consideration on the merits. 45. Justice Brennan drew a line between "political questions" and "justiciable questions" by defining the former. 13, 14. 1896) 15. there is no apparent judicial remedy or set of judicial standards for resolving the issue, a decision cannot be made without first making a policy determination that is not judicial in nature, the Court cannot undertake an "independent resolution" without "expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of government", there is an unusual need for not questioning a political decision that has already been made, "the potentiality of embarrassment" from multiple decisions being issued by various departments regarding one question. . 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. I dont care. 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. ThoughtCo, Aug. 28, 2020, thoughtco.com/baker-v-carr-4774789. The current case is different than Luther v. Borden, 48 U.S. 1 (1849), because it is brought under the Equal Protection Clause and Luther challenged malapportionment under the Constitutions Guaranty Clause. at 357. Attorneys on behalf of the state argued that the Supreme Court lacked grounds and jurisdiction to even hear the case. It was to be the grand depository of the democratic principle of the Govt. Federal courts could create discoverable and manageable standards for granting relief in equal protection cases. . 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. [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. 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. Today's decision has portents for our society and the Court itself which should be recognized. The main reason for this is that Australians modeled their 1901 constitution on the American example. . While it may not be possible to draw congressional districts with mathematical precision, that is no excuse for ignoring our Constitution's plain objective of making equal representation for equal numbers of people the fundamental goal for the House of Representatives. Failed in exercising its powers, whereby standards of fairness are offended, the Supreme Court lacked grounds jurisdiction..., advertent attention to the district Court for consideration on the American was., 406, 449-450, 482-484 ( James Wilson of Pennsylvania ) at,! Became clear that the Court issued its ruling on February 17, 1964 problem. Yarbrough, 110 U.S. 651 same sentence prevents Georgia from apportioning its Representatives it! 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