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Is Groton The Next "Evenwel"?, Paul H. Edelman
Is Groton The Next "Evenwel"?, Paul H. Edelman
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
In Evenwel v Abbott the Supreme Court left open the question of whether states could employ population measures other than total population as a basis for drawing representative districts so as to meet the requirement of ``one person- one vote'' (OPOV). It was thought that there was little prospect of resolving this question soon as no appropriate instances of such behavior was known. That belief was mistaken. In this note I report on the Town of Groton, Connecticut which uses registered voting data to apportion seats in its Representative Town Meeting, and has done so since its incorporation in 1957. …
Getting The Math Right, Paul H. Edelman
Getting The Math Right, Paul H. Edelman
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
Over the last 40 years of one person, one vote jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has distilled a stable and predictable test for resolving the basic numerical issue in equal representation: how much population difference between districts is permissible? Yet there remains one area of representation into which the Court has refused to venture: apportionment of Congress. In its only opinion on the mechanics of the decennial of apportionment, the Court deferred to Congress. It deferred because, unlike districting, it could not find a single workable measure for apportionment. But the reason it could not find such a measure was that …
Pick A Number, Any Number: State Representation In Congress After The 2000 Census, Paul H. Edelman, Suzanna Sherry
Pick A Number, Any Number: State Representation In Congress After The 2000 Census, Paul H. Edelman, Suzanna Sherry
Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications
In this essay, Professors Edelman and Sherry explain the mathematics behind the allocation of congressional seats to each state, and survey the different methods of allocation that Congress has used over the years. Using 2000 census figures, they calculate each state's allocation under five different methods, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods.