Baker v. Carr After 50 Years: Appraising the Reapportionment Revolution

Friday, November 4, 2011
8:45 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Moot Courtroom (A59)

6.0 hours CLE credit available, pending approval

The Case Western Reserve Law Review is sponsoring an anniversary symposium of the Supreme Court's decision in Baker v. Carr, addressing the many questions that have arisen from the seminal reapportionment case and its progeny. Among those issues are principles of districting, the nature of representation, voting rights, and the institutional capacity of courts to resolve disputes about districting and apportionment. A sample of the questions to be considered by our symposium are: To what extent does one person/one vote promote effective governance? Should districts be drawn to promote competitive general elections, or should they be drawn to enhance the likelihood that the composition of legislative bodies will reflect the distribution of public opinion? Should districts be drawn by elected officialsor by nonpartisan commissions? What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of single-member and multi-member districts? Should districting and apportionment disputes be treated as nonjusticable political questions?

Keynote:
Samuel Issacharoff
Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law

Panelists:
Michael Solimine
Donald P. Klekamp Professor of Law, University of Cincinnati College of Law

John Griffin
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame

Daniel Tokaji
Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law - The Ohio State University

Nelson Lund
Patrick Henry Professor of Constitutional Law and the Second Amendment, George Mason University School of Law

Justin Buchler
Associate Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University

Tom Brunell
Professor of Political Science and Senior Associate Dean of Graduate Education, University of Texas at Dallas

Mark Salling
Director, Northern Ohio Data and Information Services, Cleveland State University

Michael McDonald
Associate Professor of Government and Politics, George Mason University

Micah Altman
Senior Research Scientist, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University

Michael Kang
Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law

Neil Kinkopf
Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law

Margo J. Anderson
Professor of History and Urban Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

S. Candice Hoke
Associate Professor, Cleveland State University, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law