Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533 (1964)

"The weight of a citizen's vote cannot be made
to depend on where he lives. Legislators are elected
by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests."

Birmingham, Alabama, 1961. The voting districts in the state were drawn a half-a-century ago. But since that time, Alabama's population has shifted from farming communities to cities and suburbs. The result: rural counties, with just one-quarter of the population, still control both houses of the state legislature.

B.A. Reynolds and other Birmingham city residents go to court, charging that their votes have only one-sixteenth the weight of rural voters. In 1964, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that every ballet must count equally: "one person - one vote."Legislators represent people not trees or acres," writes Chief Justice Earl Warren. "The weight of a citizen's vote cannot be made to depend on where he lives. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests... The right to vote freely for the candidate of one's choice is of the essence of a democratic society, and any restrictions on that right strike at the heart of representative government. And the right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen's vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise."

For more...

How to Draw Redistricting Plans (That Will Stand Up in Court)

AMENDMENT 14 One Person, One Vote

Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. [^].

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