* Discuss the formation of Congressional districts, including
apportionment, reapportionment, redirecting, and
gerrymandering by the Baker V. Carr (1962) decision.
* In the State of Tennessee, representation was determined
by a 1901 law setting the number of legislators for each
county. Urban areas were underrepresented. Mayor Baker of
Nashville brought suit, saying that the apportionment
denied voters of urban areas equal protection of the law as
guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The federal court
refused to enter the “political thicket” of State districting,
and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court.
*In an opinion which explored the nature
of "political questions" and the
appropriateness of Court action in them,
the Court held that there were no such
questions to be answered in this case
and that legislative apportionment was a
justifiable issue.
As the supreme court ruled in Baker v Carr 1962,
state legislators must be apportioned according
to population so that each persons vote has
roughly equal weight.
The 13 Congressional
Districts of Georgia.
Article one of the
constitution directs congress
to reapportion the seats in
the house after each
Decennial census.
Apportionment of the U.S.
House of Representatives
for the 108th Congress.
African Americans and Latinos have historically been
under represented in the house of representatives as a
result, several states designated, “ marjority-minority ,”
congressional districts to elect more minority members
to congress.
* Congressional district maps in
several states show one and
sometimes several districts of very
odd shapes, those districts have
usually been gerrymandered.
* Gerrymandering, in politics,
rearrangement of voting districts so as to
favor the party in power. The objective is to
create as many districts as possible in areas
of known support and to concentrate the
opposition's strength into as few districts as
possible. Extremely irregular boundary lines
are sometimes necessary to obtain the
results desired.
* Gerrymandering is
districts drawn to the
advantage of the political
party that controls that
states legislature.
Is Gerrymandering Fair?
The
practice of gerrymandering isn't
a fair practice because it manipulates
state districting to give one side an
advantage.
Voting is supposed to be clean and
unbiased, not each side trying to gain
unfair advantages…
Legislative
apportionment
subdivision of a political
body for the purpose of
electing legislative
representatives. In the
United States, the
Constitution requires
that Congressional
representatives be
elected on the basis of
population.
Reapportionment
The
process by which seats in the
House of Representatives are
reassigned among the States to
reflect population changes following
the decennial census.