Reynolds v. Sims

Earl Warren led the U.S. Supreme Court during the turbulent years of the 1950s and 1960s. Driven by his own moral compass rather than politics, Warren shocked those on the left and right as he made the transition from crime-fighting district attorney to liberal chief justice. He became known as a protector of the rights of minorities and the oppressed, a stance reflected in many of his rulings. The case of Reynolds v. Sims addressed the disenfranchisement of blacks in the South, which was ongoing despite the protections offered by the Fourteenth Amendment. A group of voters challenged legislative reapportionment in Alabama, which left urban counties drastically underrepresented. In their decision the Court ruled that state legislative districts had to be roughly equal in population, based on the principle of “one person, one vote.”