Cite as: 503 U. S. 442 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U. S. 109, 123 (1986); Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S., at 234-237; cf. Gilligan v. Morgan, 413 U. S., at 11. The political question doctrine presents no bar to our reaching the merits of this dispute and deciding whether the District Court correctly construed the constitutional provisions at issue.
Our previous apportionment cases concerned States' decisions creating legislative districts; today we review the actions of Congress. Respect for a coordinate branch of Government raises special concerns not present in our prior cases, but those concerns relate to the merits of the controversy rather than to our power to resolve it. As the issue is properly raised in a case otherwise unquestionably within our jurisdiction, we must determine whether Congress exercised its apportionment authority within the limits dictated by the Constitution. See INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S. 919, 940- 941 (1983); Powell v. McCormack, 395 U. S. 486, 521 (1969). Without the need for another exploration of the Baker factors, it suffices to say that, as in Baker itself and the apportionment cases that followed, the political question doctrine does not place this kind of constitutional interpretation outside the proper domain of the Judiciary.
IV
In Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U. S. 1 (1964), the Court considered the claim of voters in Fulton County, Georgia, that the disparity between the size of their congressional district (823,680) and the average size of the 10 districts in Georgia (394,312) deprived them of the right "to have their votes for Congressmen given the same weight as the votes of other Georgians." Id., at 3. This Court upheld the claim, concluding that Article I, § 2, had established a "high standard of justice and common sense" for the apportionment of congressional districts: "equal representation for equal numbers of people." 376 U. S., at 18. The constitutional command that Representatives be chosen "by the People of the several
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