In Wesberry v. Sanders, voters in Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District challenge a state law dividing congressional districts because their district has two to three times more voters than other districts. Arguing that the votes in smaller districts would have a greater impact on the election than those lumped together in the larger districts, the Fifth District voters seek to have the divisions ruled unconstitutional and the election stopped.
The Court holds that the requirement in Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution that representatives be chosen “by the People of the several States” and the Seventeenth Amendment, which says that senators shall be “elected by the people,” mean that congressional districts should as close to the same size as practical.