12 - The Political Question

Summary

What remains of the Equal Protection Clause as a viable path to the constitutional resolution of challenges to regulations of political parties? One area where the relevance of equal protection in the election law sphere is undeniable is in the apportionment of representation. The key Warren Court era malapportionment cases that ultimately led to the famed one-person-one-vote principle in state and federal (House) legislatures had, on their face, little to do with political parties. Reynolds v. Sims, perhaps the most the well-known and consequential of the Court’s electoral representation decisions, struck down an Alabama legislative districting scheme with population numbers that varied dramatically from district to district.¹ However, in the 1963 case Gray v. Sanders, the Court had applied this principle to the statewide party primary system in Georgia, concluding that it was unconstitutional because it diluted the weight of certain voters based on their geographic location.²