Opinion ID: 1984918
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: FILED: February 24, 1992

Text: This case involves some feats of modern computer technology, by which one plan has been able to reapportion Pennsylvania's 1990 population of 11,881,643 persons with ultimate mathematical precision among 21 proposed congressional districts so that the average deviation from the ideally equal district population of 565,793 is less than 1 person. Where the task of selecting among at least six reapportionment plans has fallen to the judiciary because the General Assembly has not acted, does the constitutional principle requiring district population equality as nearly as is practicable. . . ., Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, 7-8, 84 S.Ct. 526, 530, 11 L.Ed.2d 481 (1964), mandate acceptance of only a mathematically absolute plan? Or is some departure from mathematical perfection warranted by concerns about whether the proposed congressional districts  are compact and contiguous,  facilitate community-of-interest concerns of minority groups and of areas having regional ties, and  minimize fragmentation of municipalities and voting precincts, to provide reassurance that gerrymandering is not involved?