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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

Wayne Batchis
Affiliation:
University of Delaware
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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 Party
How the Supreme Court Puts Political Party Organizations Ahead of Voters
, pp. 207 - 221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • The Political Question
  • Wayne Batchis, University of Delaware
  • Book: Throwing the Party
  • Online publication: 16 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009091909.017
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  • The Political Question
  • Wayne Batchis, University of Delaware
  • Book: Throwing the Party
  • Online publication: 16 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009091909.017
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Political Question
  • Wayne Batchis, University of Delaware
  • Book: Throwing the Party
  • Online publication: 16 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009091909.017
Available formats
×