Representational Equality Versus Electoral Equality
A recent lawsuit─ Evenwel v. Perry ─claims that the Texas Legislature violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause by using total population rather than eligible voters as the basis for redistricting the Texas Senate in 2011. The case raises a fundamental question that the Supreme Court has yet to answer: Whom does a representative in a democracy represent? Is it all of the people in a geographic area (representational equality) or is it only the eligible voters (electoral equality)? It also produces an excellent example of the intersection between ideas and institutions. If you’re more interested in the political implications of the case, Michael Li has an excellent post on his blog . The issue of the correct metric to use in redistricting has surfaced before in Texas. In Chen v. City of Houston (1998), the US District Court considered whether the City of Houston should have used citizen population rather than total population and reached the following judgment...