444
Opinion of the Court
Solicitor General Starr argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs were Assistant Attorney General Gerson, Deputy Solicitor General Roberts, Edwin S. Kneed-ler, Michael Jay Singer, and Mark B. Stern.
Marc Racicot, Attorney General of Montana, argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief were Clay R. Smith, Solicitor, and Elizabeth S. Baker, Assistant Attorney General.*
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.
Article I, § 2, of the Constitution requires apportionment of Representatives among the several States "according to their respective Numbers." 1 An Act of Congress passed in 1941 provides that after each decennial census "the method known as the method of equal proportions" shall be used to determine the number of Representatives to which each State is entitled.2 In this case a three-judge District Court
*Kenneth O. Eikenberry, Attorney General of Washington, James M. Johnson, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Carole A. Ressler, Assistant Attorney General, filed a brief for the State of Washington as amicus curiae urging reversal.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by Scott Harshbarger, Attorney General, Dwight Golann and Steve Berenson, Assistant Attorneys General, and John P. Driscoll, Jr., Edward P. Leibensperger, and Neil P. Motenko, Special Assistant Attorneys General; and for the Crow Tribe of Indians et al. by Dale T. White, Jeanne S. Whiteing, and Daniel F. Decker.
1 Article I, § 2, originally provided that "Representatives . . . shall be apportioned among the several States . . . according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons."
Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment modified this provision by establishing that "Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed."
2 55 Stat. 761-762; 2 U. S. C. § 2a(a).
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