Reapportionment: Success Story of the Warren Court

The fascinating thing about this major engagement of the Warren Court is that the principal decisions came to the Court late-1962 and after. Although these decisions precipitated a revolution in the concept and practice of legislative representation at every level of government, they were implemented quickly and with surprisingly little dislocation. The following remarks are intended to report the fact of that adjustment and to explain, to the extent the phenomenon is now understandable, why the change was so easily accomplished. When compared with the delay in public acceptance of decisions in the other areas mentioned above, the success of the reapportionment cases seems even more remarkable.

Others in this Symposium have commented on the other major areas of Supreme Court action during the last fifteen years, building in each case on what had gone before. My story is limited to the six years between 1962 and 1968.