In closing the courtroom doors, the Justices guarded the doors of every home. In the s, voters in American cities were saying the same thing. City voters sent some lawmakers to Congress and the state legislatures, of course; but in many states rural voters—a minority of the population—sent more.
People had been moving from farms to cities, but electoral districts had not changed. In , one Vermont representative spoke for 49 people, another for 33, Although the Supreme Court had decided cases on voting frauds and discrimination in state primary elections, it had dismissed a case on Congressional apportionment in Nevertheless, Charles W. Baker of Memphis, Tennessee, and nine other qualified voters filed a suit against Joe C. Carr, Secretary of State, and other officials.
The Tennessee constitution said electoral districts should be changed every ten years, but the General Assembly had not passed a reapportionment law since When the lower court dismissed Baker v.
Carr, the Supreme Court accepted it. The Justices studied briefs with maps of voting districts, and a special brief for the United States; they heard argument twice. Then, setting precedents aside, the Court decided that minority rule in state legislatures is a matter for judges to review. Justice William Brennan spoke for the majority. By November, voters in 30 of the 50 states were suing in state as well as federal courts for new voting districts.
A case from Georgia brought the issue of Congressional apportionment before the Supreme Court again; it ruled in that Congressional districts should be equal in population. Alabama appealed to the Supreme Court when district court judges rejected three reapportionment plans for the state. Sustaining the lower court, the Justices listed new rules for a state legislature.
Both houses must be based on population, they said; and if districts differ in population, the Court would not find the differences valid for geographic, historic, or economic reasons alone. They recommended their prayer to local school boards; some accepted it, including the board in New Hyde Park, which voted in for the prayer to open each school day. Some parents objected; they feared that if government may regulate or require any religious practice in a public school it gains power over matters that should be free.
Steven I. Engel and four other parents asked a New York court to order the prayer discontinued. William J. Vitale, Jr. On request, they said, any child would be excused from praying. In the Supreme Court accepted Engle v. Vitale for review. Justice Hugo L. No government should compose official prayers for Americans to recite. When lawyers for two other school boards appeared before the Court in , they praised the ruling in Engel v.
Vitale but insisted that it did not apply to their cases. But those decisions, too, reflected a deep commitment to democracy. The Warren Court acted on the premise that the role of the Supreme Court is to intervene when American democracy was not truly democratic: when some groups were marginalized or excluded and denied their fair share of democratic political power.
Most important, the Warren Court protected the interests of African Americans in the Jim Crow South, who were effectively kept from voting in many places and were utterly excluded, often violently, from positions of influence. The Warren Court protected political dissidents, stating unequivocally that free and open debate is a central commitment of any democratic government.
The Warren Court acted on behalf of members of minority religious groups whose interests were disregarded by the majority, and of criminal defendants who were often also members of discriminated-against minority groups and who lacked any effective voice in politics. Contrary to the critics, this was a principled and appropriate role for the Supreme Court to play.
If the courts are to step in, they must have a reason: a reason why a particular issue should not be left to ordinary democratic processes. In the cases that made the Warren Court famous, there were such reasons.
But it reflected his deep belief in democracy, one that guided the work of his Court. Stone and David A. All rights reserved. Sign up for our morning newsletter to get all of our stories delivered to your mailbox each weekday. View the discussion thread. Skip to main content. Search WTTW:. Thanks to our sponsors:. Author Interview. Geoffrey Stone. Supreme Court. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email.
Issues The U. Government U. Foreign Policy U. Liberal Politics U. Robert Longley. History and Government Expert. Robert Longley is a U. Facebook Facebook. Updated February 02, Today, the Warren Court is considered one of the two most important periods in the history of American constitutional law. As Chief Justice, Warren applied his political abilities to guide the court to reaching often controversial decisions that dramatically expanded civil rights and liberties, as well as judicial power.
The Warren Court effectively ended racial segregation in U. Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. Longley, Robert. What Is Originalism? Definition and Examples. School Prayer: Separation of Church and State. Current Justices of the U. Types of Federalism: Definition and Examples. Vitale Abolished Public School Prayer. Cooper v. Bolling v. What Are Individual Rights? Your Privacy Rights.
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