John Marshall Harlan II

“ He went on to state: 'The complaint is that the method of apportionment gives rise solely to territorial or purely geographical discrimination which grossly dilutes the vote of urban dwellers. Judicial interference by federal courts with the power of the state to create internal political or geographical boundaries affecting the right of suffrage can not be supported by mere territorial discrimination and nothing more.' Ibid. ”

“ He then proceeded further: 'If the insufficiency of the complaint be not adequate to require dismissal of the complaint, as I believe it is, then the want of equity in the relief sought, or, to view it slightly differently, want of justiciability, clearly demands dismissal.' Id., at 753. ”

“ For me, it thus seems clear that two members of the three-judge court dismissed the action on two alternative grounds: (1) that the matter was not 'justiciable'; (2) that the complaint stated no cause of action, in that the 'territorial discrimination' existing under New York's legislative apportionment did not give rise to a claim cognizable under the Fourteenth Amendment. The latter ground was precisely the issue that was avoided in Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 330, 82 S.Ct. 691, 771, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (dissenting opinion) ”