Evertt Dirksen senator from Illionois warned what 1964 Reynolds v. Sims decision would do. He said it would wreck Illinois it did. Its wrecking all states that have large urban centers. He led an ultimately unsuccessful effort to convene an Article V convention to solve the problem. Maybe a new Article V convention or at least a revisit to the USSC with another test case.
I wasn’t aware of Dirksen’s A5 effort. Thanks.
If the States were still represented in the US Senate, I guarantee the Scotus would never have attempted such a usurpation.
Sen. Millard Tydings (D-MD) stated that the legislatures that had applied for this convention were themselves malapportioned, and thus Congress could safely ignore the applications and refuse to call the convention. (Tydings later went to prison.) Sen. Charles Percy's (R-IL) argument was a bit more tightly argued but also aimed at Congress refusing to call the convention. Dirksen quoted the clear language of Article V and Hamilton's statement in Federalist #85 that Congress had no discretion in the matter, and Congress needed to establish some ground rules for how the convention was to function.
In 1969, Dirksen died of emphysema due to his 4-pack-a-day habit, the habit that gave him his distinctive voice. The wind then went out of the sails of the movement. I think most states that applied for this convention have since rescinded their applications.