Court Opinion

ID: 9757266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:28:31.690277+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:37.496461
License: Public Domain

*836MILLER, District Judge,
(concurring) :
I concur in Judge Gray’s opinion in this case. I would add only a few comments. It is fruitless, in my view, to pursue the elusive distinction between legislative and administrative functions. Many attempts have been made to draw the distinction in varied contexts. But whatever value the dichotomy may have for some purposes to rationalize a particular result, I am convinced that it is inapposite here. So long as a subordinate body is vested with significant and important powers of government, whether they be labelled legislative, or administrative, or both, I can see no reason why it should be permissible under the equal protection clause for a state arbitrarily to debase the value of one person’s vote in favor of another. I think that the powers and duties vested by state law in the Rutherford County School Commission are both significant and important. If the General Assembly of Tennessee sees fit to provide that the membership of such a body shall be chosen by popular vote, invidious discriminations between voters should be condemned under the “one man, one vote” rule. The difference between this case and Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506, is one of degree and not of principle.