Book contents
- Throwing the Party
- Cambridge Studies on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- Throwing the Party
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Foundations
- Part II Party Primaries
- Part III The Party, the Court, and Campaign Finance Law
- Part IV Passé Equal Protection and a Way Forward
- 11 Party and Equality
- 12 The Political Question
- 13 A Potential Solution
- 14 Conclusion
- Index
12 - The Political Question
Is There Room for Equal Protection in Partisan Gerrymandering?
from Part IV - Passé Equal Protection and a Way Forward
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 June 2022
- Throwing the Party
- Cambridge Studies on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- Throwing the Party
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Part I Foundations
- Part II Party Primaries
- Part III The Party, the Court, and Campaign Finance Law
- Part IV Passé Equal Protection and a Way Forward
- 11 Party and Equality
- 12 The Political Question
- 13 A Potential Solution
- 14 Conclusion
- Index
Summary
What remains of the Equal Protection Clause as a viable path to the constitutional resolution of challenges to regulations of political parties? One area where the relevance of equal protection in the election law sphere is undeniable is in the apportionment of representation. The key Warren Court era malapportionment cases that ultimately led to the famed one-person-one-vote principle in state and federal (House) legislatures had, on their face, little to do with political parties. Reynolds v. Sims, perhaps the most the well-known and consequential of the Court’s electoral representation decisions, struck down an Alabama legislative districting scheme with population numbers that varied dramatically from district to district.1 However, in the 1963 case Gray v. Sanders, the Court had applied this principle to the statewide party primary system in Georgia, concluding that it was unconstitutional because it diluted the weight of certain voters based on their geographic location.2
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Throwing the PartyHow the Supreme Court Puts Political Party Organizations Ahead of Voters, pp. 207 - 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022