Reapportionment in the 1970's - A Pennsylvania Illustration

Abstract

In Commonwealth ex rel. Specter v. Levin, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed, in a four-to-three order and later opinion, challenges to a reapportionment plan for the Pennsylvania State Senate and House of Representatives prepared by the Pennsylvania State Legislative Reapportionment Commission. An appeal from that order and opinion was dismissed "for want of a substantial federal question" by the United States Supreme Court on October 10, 1972. A complaint under the Civil Rights Act challenging the reapportionment plan was later dismissed by a three-judge court on May 8, 1973. Thus ended this author's journey through the "political thicket" of reapportionment in Pennsylvania. This article seeks to analyze that litigation experience and to relate it to the present state of reapportionment law as detailed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision and in the later rulings of the United States Supreme Court.

Keywords: reapportionment

JEL Classification: K10