Power Point presentation for my presentation graphics class.

1. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962)

2. Baker v. Carr was initiated in
Tennessee in 1959 against Joseph
Carr, the Tennessee secretary of
state, and George McCanless, the
attorney general.

5. 11% rural
population
50%
legislation
Urban tax
dollars

6. $98 spent on each rural $64 spent on each urban
student student

7. The best way to retain state resources
was to keep things the way they were.

9. Problems
greatest in
states with
fastest
growth
States with the
fastest growth:
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois

10. 1842 Rhode Island encountered the
Dorr Rebellion led by Thomas Wilson
Dorr.

11. The Industrial Revolution brought many
prosperous transplants and immigrants to
Rhode Island.

12. Thomas Dorr led an unsuccessful attack against
Rhode Island on May 19, 1842. Rhode Island’s
Constitution went peacefully into effect in
1843.

13. Tennessee’s own Constitution
required apportionment among the
state’s ninety-five counties after each
decennial census.

16. Colegrove v. Green, 328 U.S. 549 (1946)

18. The Supreme Court restricted its decision
to questions of:
Standing Jurisdiction
Justiciability

19. Standing: Did Baker and the other plaintiffs have
standing (the right) to bring a suit of this kind before
the Court?

21. Justiciability: Is it appropriate for the judicial
branch to hear and decide this case or should it
be left to the executive or legislative branch?

22. “…it is a responsibility of this Court as
ultimate interpreter of the Constitution.”
-Justice Brennan

25. By the end of the decade
the political landscape of
the United States was
radically altered.

27. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE WILLIAM
DOUGLAS
“Voting rights have long had the
protection of federal courts.”

28. Considered
Tennessee’s
original
apportionment
“a crazy quilt
without
rational basis.”
Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark

29. He emphasized that the Court had to
determine
Jurisdiction, Justiciability, and
Standing.

30. Supreme Court Justice John M Harlan
He set out to prove the inadequacy of
arithmetic formulas as measures of the
“irrational rationality” of Tennessee’s
apportionment.

31. Justice
Justice Clark’s Harlan’s
County Population formula Formula
Van Buren 2,039 .63 .23
Moore 2,340 2.00 1.23
Pickett 2,565 .70 .22
Sequatchie 2,909 .63 .33
Meigs 3,039 .93 .48
Houston 3,084 1.25 .46
Trousdale 3,351 1.33 .43
Lewis 3,413 1.25 .39
Perry 3,711 1.50 .71
Bledsoe 4,198 .63 .49
Clay 4,528 .70 .40
Union 4,600 .76 .37
Hancock 4,710 .93 .62

32. 5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
0
Carter
Maury
Washington
Madison
Grundy
Chester
Cumberland
Crockett
Loudon
Fayette
Population
Representation

33. Supreme Court Justice Felix
Frankfurter
Wrote Colegrove v. Green and questioned the
commission or competence of Supreme Court
Justices to decide apportionment cases.

35. Many blame bizarrely shaped districts
on the Supreme Court

36. The requirement that districts
be 99% equal in population is
mathematically absurd.

37. State and Federal judges try to bring
some order to the chaos

38. Self-interested political actors redefine
apportionment for their own fortunes