Calderon v. City of Los Angeles

Opinion

SULLIVAN, J.

We are called upon to decide whether the “one man, one vote” command of the equal protection clause requires that councilmanic voting districts be apportioned according to population or whether it is satisfied if each district contains a substantially equal number of registered voters. In short, is the constitutional imperative fulfilled by a standard of “one voter, one vote,” rather than “one person, one vote”? As we explain infra, we have concluded that an apportionment plan based on registered voters will satisfy the equal protection clause only if it produces districts…