Baker v. Carr
| Baker v. Carr | |
|---|---|
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| Argued April 19–20, 1961 Reargued October 9, 1961 Decided March 26, 1962 |
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| Full case name | Charles W. Baker et al. v. Joe. C. Carr et al. |
| Citations | 369 U.S. 186 (more)
82 S. Ct. 691; 7 L. Ed. 2d 663; 1962 U.S. LEXIS 1567
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| Prior history | 179 F. Supp. 824 (M.D. Tenn. 1959), probable jurisdiction noted, 364 U.S. 898 (1960). Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee |
| Subsequent history | 206 F. Supp. 341 (M.D. Tenn. 1962) |
| Holding | |
| The redistricting of state legislative districts is not a political question, and thus is justiciable by the federal courts. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Brennan, joined by Black, Warren |
| Concurrence | Douglas |
| Concurrence | Clark |
| Concurrence | Stewart |
| Dissent | Frankfurter, joined by Harlan |
| Dissent | Harlan, joined by Frankfurter |
| Whittaker took no part in the consideration or decision of the case. | |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. XIV; U.S. Const. art. III; 42 U.S.C. § 1983; Tenn. Const. art. II | |
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This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings
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| Colegrove v. Green, 328 U.S. 549 (1946) | |
Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186 (1962), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that decided that redistricting (attempts to change the way voting districts are delineated) issues present justiciable questions, thus enabling federal courts to intervene in and to decide redistricting cases. The defendants unsuccessfully argued that redistricting of legislative districts is a "political question", and hence not a question that may be resolved by federal courts.
Reynolds v. Sims (1964) was another major case of the Warren Court era involving representation in state legislative districts and called for "one man, one vote," and both legislative chambers in state houses to be apportioned by population rather than geographic districts, unlike the United States Congress.
Plaintiff Charles Baker was a Republican who lived in Shelby County, Tennessee, and had served as the mayor of Millington, Tennessee, near Memphis. The Tennessee State Constitution required that legislative districts for the Tennessee General Assembly be redrawn every ten years according to the federal census to provide for districts of substantially equal population (as was to be done for congressional districts). Baker's complaint was that Tennessee had not redistricted since 1901, in response to the 1900 census.
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