Constitutional Law Keyed to Chemerinsky
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Reynolds v. Sims
Facts
This case was a challenge to the malapportionment of the Alabama legislature. The challengers claimed discrimination against voters in counties whose populations that had grown proportionally far more than others since the 1900 census. The complaints noted that the existing districting scheme was based on the1900 census, even though the state constitution required legislative representation based on population and decennial reapportionment. The lower federal court found that the old apportionment scheme, as well as two new ones devised by the legislature, violated equal protection.
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