Fortson v. Dorsey/Concurrence Harlan

by John Marshall Harlan II

United States Supreme Court

379 U.S. 433

Fortson  v.  Dorsey

 Argued: Dec. 10, 1964. --- Decided: Jan 18, 1965

Mr. Justice HARLAN, concurring.

Under the compulsion of last Term's reapportionment decisions I join the opinion and judgment of the Court, but with one reservation. There is language in today's opinion, unnecessary to the Court's resolution of this case, that might be taken to mean that the constitutionality of state legislative apportionments must, in the last analysis, always be judged in terms of simple arithmetic.

As this Court embarks on the difficult business of putting flesh on the bones of Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506, and its companion decisions of last June, I desire expressly to reserve for a case which squarely presents the issue, the question of whether the principles announced in those decisions require such a sterile approach to the concept of equal protection in the political field.

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, dissenting.

Notes