Baker V. Carr
What About It?
The original case was dismissed by the Tennessee District Court because they stated that the plaintiff did not have the means to sue Carr as this was not in his jurisdiction. This was false information. The Supreme Court examined this case on April 19th and 20th, 1961 and was reargued in October of the same year. The final decision was made on March 26th, 1962. Justice William J. Brennan wrote the opinion for the case. The opinion stated that the district court was wrong to dismiss the case when they knew Carr had jurisdiction over it. The fourteenth amendment had not been equally applied. The vote ratio was 6:2 with six votes for Baker and two votes against him.
This case influenced how powerful one vote was. The saying "one person, one vote" became very popular after this case as rural parts of many states became more equal in elections instead of having those same rural towns dominate the voting booths compared to urban cities. Many other cases were influenced by this case including Reynolds V. Sims.