Carpenter v. Board of Apportionment

Respondents are the Board of Apportionment created by Amendment No. 23 to the Constitution, Sec. 1. The question is whether, under Sec. 4 of the Amendment, a reapportionment should have been made on or before February 1. Section 5 authorizes mandamus where the Board has failed to perform its duties. The response was to a petition by Carpenter in which it was alleged that the Federal census had been completed and that the Board had failed to act.

In extenuation the Board says that when it met January 26th, 1951, official census figures by counties were not available. Attached to the response is…