Brown v. Thomson
United States Supreme Court
462 U.S. 835 (1983)
- Written by Kelly Simon, JD
Facts
The Wyoming Constitution created a bicameral legislature and required that every county in the state must have at least one delegate in the Wyoming House of Representatives. The 1980 US Census counted Wyoming’s total population as 469,557, and thus, the ideal population per single representative was 7,377. In 1981, Wyoming adopted an apportionment plan that provided for 64 representatives, one for each county, including one representative for Niobrara County. Niobrara was Wyoming’s least populated county, with a population of 2,924. Margaret Brown (plaintiff) sued Wyoming Secretary of State Thyra Thomson (defendant), arguing that the state’s plan for Niobrara County was unconstitutional. Brown argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was violated because the voting power of the citizens of Wyoming was diminished by the allocation of one of Wyoming’s 64 representatives to the citizens of Niobrara. The district court upheld the apportionment plan and the allocation of one representative to Wyoming. Brown appealed directly to the United States Supreme Court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Powell, J.)
Concurrence (O’Connor, J.)
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