Baker v Carr

Baker v. Carr case decided in 1962 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Tennessee had failed to reapportion the state legislature for 60 years despite population growth and redistribution. Charles Baker, a voter, brought suit against the state (Joe Carr was a state official in charge of elections) in federal district court, claiming that the dilution of his vote as a result of the state's failure to reapportion violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The court dismissed the complaint on the grounds that it could not decide a political question. Baker appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled that a case raising a political issue would be heard. This landmark decision opened the way for numerous suits on legislative apportionment .

Baker v. Carr (USA, 1962) The first of a series of Supreme Court decisions which undermined the custom of manipulating legislative apportionments at state and federal levels for political or racial purposes. Electoral boundaries had been drawn up to discriminate against Americans of Color. This decision ruled that population was the only acceptable basis for representation in the United States. Crucially, the Court ruled that the apportionment of seats was not simply a political question, but that it did fall within the purview of the judicative.