United States Department of Commerce v. Montana

Article I, §2, of the Constitution requires apportionment of Representatives among the several States “according to their respective Numbers.” An Act of Congress passed in 1941 provides that after each decennial census “the method known as the method of equal proportions” shall be used to determine the number of Representatives to which each State is entitled. In this case a three-judge District Court held that statute unconstitutional because it found that the method of equal proportions resulted in an unjustified deviation from the ideal of equal representation. The Government’s appeal from…