Lawsuit seeking larger House

by Wally Northway

Published: September 18,2009

OXFORD — A lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi challenging the constitutionality of the current size of the United States House of Representatives.

The lawsuit argues that the provision in the United States Code (2 USC section 2a) that freezes the size of the House at 435 members is unconstitutional, egregiously violating the well-established principle of “one person, one vote” affirmed in multiple Supreme Court decisions. At the state level, the implication of “one person, one vote” means that each state must ensure a population variance of less than 1 percent across all its federal congressional districts so that voter equality is strictly maintained. At the national level, however, this principle has not been applied, and the population variance between the most under-represented congressional district and most over-represented district exceeds 80%. Fortunately, the current disparity and resulting inequity can be remedied by simply adding more members to the House of Representatives.

The five plaintiffs in the case each represent the five most under-represented states and include: Lisa Schea from Delaware, John Tyler Clemons from Mississippi, Jessica Wagner from Montana, Krystal Brunner from South Dakota and Frank Mylar from Utah.

Apportionment.US, Inc. is the non-profit organization coordinating the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs.

If this lawsuit is successful, the court will require an increase in House membership to achieve appropriate voter equality across America, and bring about perhaps the most significant change in the federal government structure in nearly a century.

Counsel for the plaintiffs includes Michael Farris (chancellor of Patrick Henry College in Virginia) and the local law firm of Wilson, Hinton & Wood in Corinth.

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