White v. Regester

Summary

The Supreme Court considered challenges to Texas's 1970 reapportionment plan for the House of Representatives. The Court held that the plan's 9.9% population deviation did not, by itself, establish an Equal Protection violation, but affirmed the invalidation of multimember districts in Dallas and Bexar Counties because they impermissibly diluted the voting strength of racial and ethnic minority groups.

Holdings

1. Relatively minor population deviations among state legislative districts do not, standing alone, establish a prima facie Equal Protection violation. The 9.9 percent deviation shown here was insufficient, without more, to prove invidious discrimination or unconstitutional vote dilution.
2. The multimember districts in Dallas and Bexar Counties were constitutionally invalid because, under the totality of the circumstances, they invidiously excluded Black and Mexican-American voters from effective participation in the political process and minimized their voting strength.
3. Because the appeal was properly taken from an injunction issued by a three-judge district court, the Supreme Court had jurisdiction to review the accompanying statewide declaration invalidating the reapportionment plan.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the 9.9 percent population deviation in the Texas House reapportionment plan violated the Equal Protection Clause.
2. Whether the multimember districts in Dallas and Bexar Counties were used invidiously to dilute the voting strength of cognizable racial or ethnic groups.
3. Whether the Supreme Court had jurisdiction over the entire appeal from the three-judge district court's injunction and accompanying declaratory judgment.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded