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Reynolds v. Sims: Equal protection requires that state legislative districts should be comprised of roughly equal populations if possible.
10 sty 2020 · In Reynolds v. Sims (1964) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states must create legislative districts that each have a substantially equal number of voters to comply with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It is known as the "one person, one vote" case.
Reynolds v. Sims , 377 U.S. 533 (1964), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that the electoral districts of state legislative chambers must be roughly equal in population.
In an 8-to-1 decision authored by Justice Earl Warren, the Court upheld the challenge to the Alabama system, holding that Equal Protection Clause demanded "no less than substantially equal state legislative representation for all citizens...."
The plaintiffs argued that in failing to update the districts to reflect current populations, the districts violated the Alabama Constitution's explicit mandate to conduct reapportionment after each decennial census as well as the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Sims, however, Chief Justice Earl Warren rejected the consideration of local, social, political, and economic interests, and insisted on a strict “one person, one vote” formula, thus requiring almost all the states to change their own constitutions to reflect this mathematical standard.
In 1961, M.O. Sims, David J. Vann (of Vann v. Baggett), John McConnell (McConnell v. Baggett), and other voters from Jefferson County, Alabama, challenged the apportionment of the state legislature. Lines dividing electoral districts had resulted in dramatic population discrepancies among the districts.
