460
Opinion of the Court
States" meant that "as nearly as is practicable one man's vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another's." Id., at 7-8. Writing for the Court, Justice Black explained:
"It would defeat the principle solemnly embodied in the Great Compromise—equal representation in the House for equal numbers of people—for us to hold that, within the States, legislatures may draw the lines of congressional districts in such a way as to give some voters a greater voice in choosing a Congressman than others. The House of Representatives, the Convention agreed, was to represent the people as individuals, and on a basis of complete equality for each voter." Id., at 14.
In subsequent cases, the Court interpreted that standard as imposing a burden on the States to "make a good-faith effort to achieve precise mathematical equality." Kirkpatrick v. Preisler, 394 U. S., at 530-531; see also Karcher v. Daggett, 462 U. S., at 730.
Our cases applying the Wesberry standard have all involved disparities in the size of voting districts within the same State. In this case, however, Montana contends, and a majority of the District Court agreed, that the Wesberry standard also applies to apportionment decisions made by Congress and that it was violated because of an unjustified variance between the population of Montana's single district and the ideal district size.
Montana's evidence demonstrated that if Congress had used the method of the harmonic mean, sometimes referred to as the "Dean Method," instead of the method of equal proportions, sometimes called the "Hill Method," to apportion the districts, 48 of the States would have received the same number of Representatives, while Washington would have received one less—eight instead of nine—and Montana would have received one more. Under an apportionment undertaken according to the Hill Method, the absolute differ-
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