John Marshall Harlan II

“ More important, the greater and more varied range of functions performed by local governmental units implies that flexibility in the form of their structure is even more important than at the state level, and that by depriving local governments of this needed adaptability the Court's holding may indeed defeat the very goals of Reynolds.
The present case affords one example of why the 'one man, one vote' rule is especially inappropriate for local governmental units. ”

“ There is another reason why the Court should at least wait for a suitable period before applying the Reynolds dogma to local governments. The administrative feasibility of judicial application of the 'one man, one vote' rule to the apportionment even of state legislatures has not yet been demonstrated. ”

“ No claim is made in this case that avenues of political redress are not open to correct any malapportionment in elective local governmental units, and it is difficult to envisage how such a situation could arise. Local governments are creatures of the States, and they may be reformed either by the state legislatures, which are now required to be apportioned according to Reynolds, or by amendment of state constitutions. ”

“ Even assuming that this result could be justified on the state level, because of the substantial identity in form and function of the state legislatures, and because of the asserted practical necessities for federal judicial interference referred to above, the 'one man, one vote' theory is surely a hazardous generalization on the local level. As has been noted previously, no 'practical necessity' has been asserted to justify application of the rule to local governments. ”

“ These functional considerations reinforce my belief that the 'one man, one vote' rule, which possesses the simplistic defects inherent in any judicially imposed solution of a complex social problem, [13] is entirely inappropriate for determining the form of the country's local governments. ”

“ Despite the majority's declaration that it is not imposing a 'straitjacket' on local governmental units, see ante, at 485, its solution is likely to have other undesirable 'freezing' effects on local government. One readily foreseeable example is in the crucial field of metropolitan government. A common pattern of development in the Nation's urban areas has been for the less affluent citizens to migrate to or remain within the central city, while the more wealthy move to the suburbs and come into the city only to work. ”