By Gregory Korte, USA TODAY
Updated 12/13/2010 1:27 PM
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is the same size it was a century ago — even as the country’s population has grown more than three times as large.
That’s resulted in growing disparities between the largest congressional district and the smallest. When the U.S. Census Bureau releases state-by-state population numbers this month, it’s likely that Montana’s lone congressional district will have about 450,000 more people in it than that of its Wyoming neighbor.
The U.S. Supreme Court could decide as soon as today if justices will hear a case on whether those disparities violate the principle of “one man, one vote.” Justices were scheduled to discuss the case behind closed doors Friday.
The lawsuit, Clemons v. U.S. Department of Commerce, seeks a court order to force Congress to add more members so that the sizes of congressional districts would be more equal.
Last July, in a decision that quoted liberally from the Founding Fathers, a special three-judge panel ruled against changing the current system. “We see no reason to believe that the Constitution as originally understood or long applied imposes the requirements of close equality among districts in different states,” it ruled.
The lawsuit was the brainchild of Californian Scott Scharpen, and was brought by Virginia lawyer Michael Farris. Both are self-described small-government conservatives. But it’s not about partisan politics, they say.
“Representation was the core tenet of our country,” says Scharpen, founder of the group Apportionment.us. “Representation is everything. And right now, the representation is severely unequal.”
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Tags: Congress, Constitution, House of Representatives, Media, News Item
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