States like Illinois, California, New York - all states with a large urban centers are experiencing the consequences of Reynolds vs Sims. The then Illinois center Evert Dirkson warned that the ruling would be devastating to states like his.The large urban centers sit the financial & political agendas for their states to the urban center’s benefit not to the entire state. State senators probably should represent their counties of origin, analogous to the federal senators representing the states.
Typo
“Illinois center” should read “Illinois Senator”!
Typo
“sit” should read “set”
Scotus: “We hold that, as a basic constitutional standard, the Equal Protection Clause requires that the seats in both houses of a bicameral state legislature must be apportioned on a population basis. Considerations of history, economic or other group interests, or area alone do not justify deviations from the equal-population principle.”
With these words, the philosopher-kings of the Warren court tossed aside three hundred years of good governing practice. Until Reynolds, states often apportioned senatorial districts by counties. After Reynolds, One-Man-One-Vote became the bumper sticker standard for all state legislative houses. This little-known decision is at least partly, if not largely, responsible for the growing fiscal emergencies in many states.
Reynolds v. Sims is the judicially imposed, unconstitutional state level equivalent of the 17th Amendment, which democratized the US Senate. Senator Dirksen of Illinois summed up the effect of Reynolds when he warned that Chicago would come to dominate Springfield. He was right, and with help from Reynolds, Illinois is near bankruptcy and losing population as people flee high taxes, higher unemployment, and societal destruction.