Evenwel v. Abbott (578 U.S. 54)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided April 4, 2016 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 578 U.S. 54 · 136 S. Ct. 1120
- Decided
- April 4, 2016
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice GINSBURGdelivered the opinion of the Court. Texas, like all other States, draws its legislative districts on the basis of total population. Plaintiffs-appellants are Texas voters; they challenge this uniform method of districting on the ground that it produces unequal districts when measured by voter-eligible population. Voter-eligible population, not total population, they urge, must be used to ensure that their votes will not be devalued in relation to citizens' votes in other districts. We hold, based on constitutional history, this Court's decisions, and longstanding practice, that a State may draw its legislative districts based on total population. I A This Court long resisted any role in overseeing the process by which States draw legislative districts. "The remedy for unfairness in districting," the Court once held, "is to secure State legislatures that will apportion properly, or to invoke the ample powers of Congress." Colegrove v. Green, 328 U.S. 549, 556, 66 S.Ct. 1198, 90 L.Ed. 1432 (1946). "Courts ought not to enter this political thicket," as Justice Frankfurter put it. Ibid. Judicial abstention left pervasive malapportionment unchecked. In the opening half of the 20th century, there was a massive population shift away from rural areas and toward suburban and urban communities. Nevertheless, many States ran elections into the early 1960's based on maps…
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