Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/412/772/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 10:12:37+00:00

Document:
trict of Texas reaching a similar result as to the Texas plan. In the Texas case, the Court does affirm, however, the District Court's determination that the use of multimember districts in Dallas and Bexar Counties had the unconstitutional effect of minimizing the voting strength of racial groups. [Footnote 1] See Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 142-144, 1868-1869 (1971); Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73, 88, 1294 (1966); Fortson v. Dorsey, 379 U.S. 433, 439, 501 (1965). With that latter conclusion I am in full agreement, as I also agree with and join Part I of the Court's opinion in No. 72-147, White v. Regester. But the decision to uphold the state apportionment schemes reflects a substantial and very unfortunate retreat from the principles established in our earlier cases, and I therefore must state my dissenting views.
districts deviated substantially from the ideal, ranging from a district underrepresented by 3.93% to one overrepresented by 3.9%. The total spread of deviation-a figure deemed relevant in each of our earlier decisions-was 7.83%. The population of 39 assembly districts deviated from the average by more than 3%. Another 34 districts deviated by more than 2%. The average deviation was just under 2%. To demonstrate that the state plan did not achieve the greatest practicable degree of equality in per- district population, appellees submitted a number of proposed apportionment plans, including one that would have significantly reduced the extent of inequality. The total range of deviation under appellees' plan would have been 2.61%, as compared to 7.83% under the state plan.
the deviations at issue here such a conclusion could hardly be supported. Whereas the Commonwealth of Virginia made a substantial effort to draw district lines in conformity with the boundaries of political subdivisions- an effort that was found sufficient in Mahan v. Howell to validate a plan with total deviation of 16.4%-the evidence in the case before us requires the conclusion that Connecticut's apportionment plan was drawn in complete disregard of political subdivision lines. The District Court pointed out that '(t)he boundary lines of 47 towns are cut under the Plan so that one or more portions of each of these 47 towns are added to another town or a portion of another town to form an assembly district.' 341 F.Supp., at 142. Moreover, the boundary lines of 29 of these 47 towns were cut more than once, and the plan created '78 segments of towns in the formation of 151 assembly districts.' Ibid.
justified by the State, one can reasonably surmise that a line has been drawn at 10%-deviations in excess of that amount are apparently acceptable only on a showing of justification by the State; deviations less than that amount require no justification whatsoever.
de minimis approach is fully applicable to the case before us. We pointed out there that the 'as nearly as practicable' standard-the standard that controls legislative apportionment as well as congressional districting, Reynolds v. Sims, supra, 377 U.S., at 577-demands that 'the State make a good-faith effort to achieve precise mathematical equality. . . . Equal representation for equal numbers of people is a principle designed to prevent debasement of voting power and diminution of access to elected representatives. Toleration of even small deviations detracts from these purposes.' 394 U.S., at 530-531, 89 S.Ct. at 1228-1229. Kirkpatrick recognized that 'to consider a certain range of variances de minimis would encourage legislators to strive for that range rather than for equality as nearly as practicable.' 394 U.S., at 531.
reduced the total variance to between 10% and 15%; two had cut the variance to between 5% and 10%; only one had reduced the variance below 5%. The record of apportionment of state House districts was even less encouraging. Variances in excess of 15% characterized all but two of the States, and only one of these had brought the total variance under 10%. The improvement in the post-1969 years could not have been more dramatic. The table provided by appellees, set out in full in the margin,7 reveals that in almost one-half of the States the total variance in population of senatorial districts was within 5% to zero. Of the 45 States as to which information was available, 32 had reduced the total variance below 10% and only eight had failed to bring the total variance below 15%. With regard to House districts the improvement is similar. On the basis of information concerning 42 States, it appears that 20 had achieved a total variance of less than 5%, and only 14 retained districts with a total variance of more than 15% from the constitutional ideal.
a scholastic obsession with abstract numbers nor a rigid insensitivity to the political realities of the reapportionment process. Our paramount concern has remained an individual and personal right-the right to an equal vote. 'While the result of a court decision in a state legislative apportionment controversy may be to require the restructuring of the geographical distribution of seats in a state legislature, the judicial focus must be concentrated upon ascertaining whether there has been any discrimination against certain of the State's citizens which constitutes an impermissible impairment of their constitutionally protected right to vote.' Reynolds v. Sims, supra, 377 U.S., at 561. We have demanded equality in district population precisely to insure that the weight of a person's vote will not depend on the district in which he lives. The conclusion that a State may, without any articulated justification, deliberately weight some persons' votes more heavily than others, seems to me fundamentally at odds with the purpose and rationale of our reapportionment decisions. Regrettably, today's decisions are likely to jeopardize the very substantial gains that have been made during the last four years.
'the total deviations for Dallas and Bexar Counties, respectively, amount to about 16,000 people and 5,500 people, for a total of around 21,500 people.
The percentage deviation figures are only a shorthand method of expressing the 'loss,' dilution, or disproportionate weighting of votes. Just as the Court in Reynolds concluded that legislators represent people, not trees or cows, so we would emphasize that legislators represent people, not percentages of people.' 343 F.Supp., at 713 n. 5.
Footnote 1 In Fortson v. Dorsey, 379 U.S. 433 ( 1965), we held that a multimember district is not per se unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause, even though we had previously recognized certain inherently undesirable features of the device. See Lucas v. Colorado General Assembly, 377 U.S. 713, 731 n. 21, 1471 (1964). We have concluded, however, that the use of the device is, in fact, unconstitutional, where it operates to "minimize or cancel out the voting strength of racial or political elements of the voting population." Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73, 88, 1294 (1966), quoting from Fortson v. Dorsey, supra, 379 U. S. at 439, 85 S.Ct. at 501. Today's decision is the first in which we have sustained an attack on the use of multimember districts. Cf. Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 144, 1869 (1971).
Footnote 2 With regard to the senatorial districts, the 1971 plan produced a total variance of 1.81%. Although appellees did not specifically challenge the apportionment of senatorial districts, the District Court properly concluded that its finding of unconstitutional deviation in one house required invalidation of the entire apportionment plan. Maryland Committee for Fair Representation v. Tawes, 377 U.S. 656, 673, 1438 (1964); Lucas v. Colorado General Assembly, supra, 377 U.S., at 735. Burns v. Richardson, supra, 384 U.S., at 83.
Footnote 3 The District Court pointed out that 'the State's method of computing deviations in the multi-member districts may distort the actual percentage deviations in those eleven districts. . . . Since we have concluded that the 9.9% total deviation is not the result of a good faith attempt to achieve population equality as nearly as practicable, it is unnecessary for us to resolve this complex computational conflict.' 343 F. Supp. 704, 713 n. 5. A similar conflict existed in Mahan v. Howell, 410 U.S. 315 (1973), as I pointed out in my dissenting opinion, id., at 333 and there too the Court declined to indicate any awareness of the dispute.
Footnote 4 There is a statement, to be sure, in Swann v. Adams, 385 U.S. 440, 444, 572 (1967), that '(d)e minimis deviations are unavoidable,' but that statement must be viewed in context. By way of clarification, the Court immediately added that 'the Reynolds opinion limited the allowable deviations to those minor variations which 'are based on legitimate considerations incident to the effectuation of a rational state policy.' 377 U.S. 533, 579 (, 1391).' Ibid. Similarly, the Court noted, quoting from Roman v. Sincock, 377 U.S. 695, 710, 1458 (1964), that 'the Constitution permits 'such minor deviations only as may occur in recognizing certain factors that are free from any taint of arbitrariness or discrimination." 385 U.S., at 444. Swann v. Adams does not, in my view, suggest any support for the proposition that deviations as great as 10% are tolerable in the absence of any justification or explanation by the State.
Footnote 5 By contrast, in Mahan v. Howell, supra, the Court expressly reaffirmed the holding of Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964), that 'some deviations from the equal-population principle are constitutionally permissible' '(s)o long as the divergences from a strict population standard are based on legitimate considerations incident to the effectuation of a rational state policy.' Id., at 579, quoted in Mahan v. Howell, supra, at 325, 93 S.Ct. at 985 ( emphasis added). In my view, the Court incorrectly concluded in Mahan v. Howell that Virginia had justified the population variations at issue there. Nevertheless, the Court did follow the line of analysis prescribed in our earlier decisions-requiring the State to justify every deviation from precise equality. The approach of Mahan is, therefore, directly at odds with the approach adopted today. See also, e.g., Abate v. Mundt, 403 U.S. 182, 185, 1907 (1971); Kilgarlin v. Hill, 386 U.S. 120, 122, 822 (1967); Swann v. Adams, supra, 385 U.S., at 443-446-573.
Footnote 6 Appellees' figures are compiled from a table entitled Apportionment of Legislatures, im 17 Council of State Governments, the Book of the States: 1968-1969, pp. 66-67 (1968), and from Council of State Governments, Reapportionment in the Seventies (1973).
Footnote 8 See 394 U.S., at 538-540-1233 (Fortas, J., concurring); Wells v. Rockefeller, 394 U.S. 542, 554, 1236 (1969) (White, J., dissenting).

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