John Marshall Harlan II

“ In all of the discussion surrounding the basis of representation of the House and all of the discussion whether Representatives should be elected by the legislatures or the people of the States, there is nothing which suggests even remotely that the delegates had in mind the problem of districting within a State. ”

“ The constitutional scheme vests in the States plenary power to regulate the conduct of elections for Representatives, and, in order to protect the Federal Government, provides for congressional supervision of the States' exercise of their power. Within this scheme, the appellants do not have the right which they assert, in the absence of provision for equal districts by the Georgia Legislature or the Congress. The constitutional right which the Court creates is manufactured out of whole cloth. ”

“ The Court's holding that the Constitution requires States to select Representatives either by elections at large or by elections in districts composed 'as nearly as is practicable' of equal population places in jeopardy the seats of almost all the members of the present House of Representatives. ”

“ I, § 2, guarantees each of these States and every other State 'at Least one Representative.' It is whimsical to assert in the face of this guarantee that an absolute principle of 'equal representation in the House for equal numbers of people' is 'solemnly embodied' in Article I. All that there is is a provision which bases representation in the House, generally but not entirely, on the population of the States. The provision for representation of each State in the House of Representatives is not a mere exception to the principle framed by the majority ”

“ As the Court repeatedly emphasizes, delegates to the Philadelphia Convention frequently expressed their view that representation should be based on population. There were also, however, many statements favoring limited monarchy and property qualifications for suffrage and expressions of disapproval for unrestricted democracy. ”

“ Since the difference between the largest and smallest districts in Iowa is 89,250, and the average population per district in Iowa is only 393,934, Iowa's 7 Representatives might well lose their seats as well. ”

“ In sharp contrast to this unanimous silence on the issue of this case when Art. I, § 2, was being discussed, there are repeated references to apportionment and related problems affecting the States' selection of Representatives in connection with Art. I, § 4. The debates in the ratifying conventions, as clearly as Madison's statement at the Philadelphia Convention, supra, pp. 32-33, indicate that under § 4, the state legislatures, subject only to the ultimate control of Congress, could district as they chose. ”

“ The promise of judicial intervention in matters of this sort cannot but encourage popular inertia in efforts for political reform through the political process, with the inevitable result that the process is itself weakened. ”

“ There is a further basis for demonstrating the hollowness of the Court's assertion that Article I requires 'one man's vote in a congressional election * * * to be worth as much as another's,' ante, p. 8. Nothin that the Court does today will disturb the fact that although in 1960 the population of an average congressional district was 410,481, [11] the States of Alaska, Nevada, and Wyoming each have a Representative in Congress, although their respective populations are 226,167, 285,278, and 330,066. [12] In entire disregard of population, Art. ”

“ Luce points to the 'quite arbitrary grant of representation proportionate to three fifths of the number of slaves' as evidence that even in the House 'the representation of men as men' was not intended. ”

“ Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663, did ctually decide, it can hardly be maintained on the authority of Baker or anything else, that the Court does not today invalidate Mr. Justice Frankfurter's eminently correct statement in Colegrove that 'the Constitution has conferred upon Congress exclusive authority to secure fair representation by the States in the popular House * * *. If Congress failed in exercising its powers, whereby standards of fairness are offended, the remedy ultimately lies with the people.' 328 U.S., at 554, 66 S.Ct. ”

“ VII, which restricted the vote to freeholders 'possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds, * * * or (who) have rented a tenement * * * of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State.' The constitutional and statutory qualifications for electors in the various States are set out in tabular form in 1 Thorpe, A Constitutional History of the American People 1776-1850 (1898) , 93-96. The progressive elimination of the property qualification is described in Sait, American Parties and Elections (Penniman ed., 1952) , 16-17. ”