You Say You Want a Revolution
VRA Class 16: The Districting Cases that Upended American Politics
15 hours. Over 4 days.
In the fall of 1963, the Supreme Court knew it was peering over the edge of the cliff.
In April, it had just declared that “one person, one vote” was the law of the land. But that was in a case about counting votes for statewide elections—not legislative districts. They were different, the court had said.
But were they really?
At the time, dozens of cases of districts with wildly different sizes were making their way through the courts.
By the middle of 1963, four cases arrived at the Supreme Court. And the Justices and those paying attention knew the reality: if their declaration of “one person, one vote” were to be applied to legislative districts, almost every statehouse in America—not to mention countless Congressional districts—would violate that standard. And would therefore be unconstitutional.
The Court was standing on the precipice of declaring most of America’s politicians illegitimate.
So over 15 hours in those 4 days, facing challenges of districts in six states (Alabama, Maryland, New York, Virginia, Colorado, and Delaware), the nine justices wrestled with what to do.
They essentially had three choices:
Step away from these cases as too political, and continue leaving things up to the legislatures (by far the least likely option to be chosen following Baker v. Carr);
Take action, but use a deferential standard—giving legislatures broad discretion to draw different-sized districts as long as they could justify them with rational reasons. That would potentially leave many of the challenged maps in place;
Apply a strict “one person, one vote” standard, requiring districts across states to comprise equal-sized populations—which would mean almost every state in the country would be found in violation of the Constitution
After those days of arguments, the country waited all winter for the answer.
The Court’s decision came through two major decisions. One case involved the drawing of Congressional districts by states; the second, state legislative districts themselves.
And beyond the fine print of the legal standards and analysis, what the Court delivered was a revolution in the legislatures across America, and politics writ large.
Class 16 of my Voting Rights Academy is about the historic cases that triggered that revolution—what they achieved that still shapes our entire political system today; and what, in the end, they failed to achieve:
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