Mahan v. Howell

Acting pursuant to the mandate of its newly revised state constitution,1 the Virginia General Assembly enacted statutes apportioning the State for the election of members of its House of Delegates2 and Senate.3 Two suits were brought challenging the constitutionality of the House redistricting statute on the grounds that there were impermissible population variances in the districts, that the multimember districts diluted representation,4 and that the use of multimember districts *318constituted racial gerrymandering.5 The Senate redistricting statute was attacked in a separate suit, which…