Baker v. carr

1. Baker V. Carr (1962) Elizabeth Cahan

2. Background Information A Tennessee law says all its towns are required to provide population statistics to the state every 10 years. Each town is required to do this so the state can accurately determine jurisdictional boundaries. The Fourteenth Amendment has an Equal Protection Clause. This clause says that “No state shall…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” [1]

3. The Case Charles Baker, a resident of Shelby County, Tennessee, filed suit against Joe Carr , Tennessee's Secretary of State. Baker’s alleged that Tennessee legislature had not redrawn its legislative districts since 1901 , (61 years earlier) which violated the Tennessee State Constitution. Baker , who lived in an urban part of the state, said the state demographics had changed because a greater proportion of the population had moved to the cities. This demographic change diluted his vote and was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

4. Verdict The Supreme Court said that Tennessee’s refusal to follow the expressed law of remapping the districts was in direct violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution doesn’t allow the government to infringe on an individual person’s rights to pursue a happy life. Article III of the United States Constitution states that the Federal Government is allowed to rule over all laws in the event that unfair advantages are present with the creation of a law. This law was created to ensure an equal legal process throughout the United States. 

5. Legacy Baker v. Carr is the first of the cases developing the Supreme Court’s “one person, one vote” legislation. This line of cases helped equalize representation between country and city dwellers in an increasingly urbanized nation.

6. Legacy- Other Cases The Supreme Court’s ruling in Reynolds v. Sims (1964) was built on the Baker v. Carr case. Reynolds v. Sims required virtually every state legislature to be reapportioned. This caused political power in most states to shift from rural to urban areas.