J. Douglas Smith, On Democracys Doorstep (Hill and Wang, 2014)
This year we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, a legal revolution with far-reaching cultural, political, and economic import. But as J. Douglas Smith argues in On Democracy\u2019s Doorstep: The Inside Story of How the Supreme Court Brought \u201cOne Person, One Vote\u201d to the United States (Hill and Wang, 2014),the early 1960s witnessed a comparable sea change in voting law that deserves far more attention. Indeed, when journalists asked Earl Warren what he regarded as the Supreme Court\u2019s most important accomplishment under his tenure, the Chief Justice \u2014 who oversaw a series of landmark cases, from Brown to Miranda \u2013\u2013 did not hesitate to answer: Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims. Few Americans today could identify and explain what these rulings did. But as Smith explains, they represented a dramatic break with a long-reigning electoral system that now feels almost unimaginable.\n\nAmerica is exceptional among modern democracies for elevating the idea of unequal representation to a theory of\u201dchecks and balances;\u201d the Senate being the most obvious example (California, with more people than the twenty-one least-populous states combined, has as tiny a fraction of the power in Congress). Yet the situation was far worse before the Court\u2019s forgotten revolution, with state legislatures across the country effectively disfranchising voters on a mass scale. Los Angeles County, with more than 6 million residents in 1960, had just one state senator. Three nearby counties, with less than 15,000 voters, each had the same.\n\nMany have argued that these facts have been inconsequential to U.S. political history, a very counterintuitive notion if so. But the early twentieth century politicians who relied on the inflation of rural and small-town districts \u2014 some of whom numbered among the most powerful arbiters of legislation and debate in Washington \u2014 certainly did not share this view. In reaction to the Court\u2019s decisions, Everett Dirksen, the Republican Minority Leader in the legendary 89th Congress, hired the consulting firm Whitaker and Baxter, widely thought to have pioneered modern campaigning, to repeal or roll back the rulings. Dozens of states lined up, with enormous funding from the nation\u2019s biggest corporations. The group even considered a Constitutional Convention, what would have been the first since 1789. Those efforts failed. But in the wake of this half-realized democratization, legislatures underwent dramatic political change. Notably, they also turned to gerrymandering and increasing reliance on the filibuster.\n\nDubbed by the Washington Post one of the notable works of the year, Smith\u2019s book is well worth your read.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law