Case Study: Reynolds V. Sims

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Reynolds v. Sims

Alabama’s state constitution calls for a reapportionment every ten years. However, in 1961 the state had not been reapportioned since 1901. This upset many residents of Alabama because nearly one-fourth of the state’s population could vote for the majority of the state senators and representatives. Finally, M.O. Sims and many other residents of Jefferson County, Alabama challenged the apportionment of the state legislature. They sued state and party officials in federal district court stating that the malapportionment denied them equal voting rights. They argued that some ratios of people to legislature were as high as fourteen to one in senate districts and up to sixteen to one in the lower house. The district court agreed …show more content…
He begins the opinion is asking us to think about a predominant consideration in determining if a state’s apportionment plan discriminates or impairs individual or personal rights. He calls on a precedent case, United States v. Bathgate (1918), which stated, “the right to vote is personal.” He writes that while the decision of the lower court, on this controversial topic of state legislative apportionment, was requiring the state in question to redraw the distribution of state legislatures seats. However, the judicial focus needs to be whether or not there is discrimination against certain residents in the state, which in turn impedes on their right to vote. This case deals with such precious and sacred civil rights that any intrusion of this violates the Constitution. The right to vote is undoubtedly a fundamental matter in a democratic free …show more content…
He says, “as long as ours is a representative form of government, and our legislatures are those instruments of government elected directly by and directly representative of the people, the right to elect legislators in a free and unimpaired fashion is a bedrock of our political system.” If voters in one part of the state are given two, five, or ten times the weight of voters in another part of the state, it cannot be challenged that those voters in the non-weighted areas have been weakened. In addition, since legislatures are responsible for “enacting laws by which all citizens are to be governed, they should be bodies which are collectively responsive to the popular will.” One of the basic principles of a representative government needs to remain untouched, the power of a citizen’s vote cannot be made to be contingent on where he
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