222
Stevens, J., dissenting
In Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186 (1962), we addressed the apportionment of Tennessee's Legislature. The State's apportionment regime had remained unchanged since 1901 and was such that, by the time of trial, "40% of the voters elect[ed] 63 of the 99 members of the [state] House" of Representatives. Id., at 253 (Clark, J., concurring). Although, as Justice Frankfurter observed in dissent, " 'very unequal' representation" had been a feature of the Nation's political landscape since colonial times, id., at 307-318, the Court was not bound by this long tradition. Our other cases resemble Dunn and Baker in this way: Never have we indicated that tradition was synonymous with necessity.
Even if we assume that campaign-free zones were once somehow "necessary," it would not follow that, 100 years later, those practices remain necessary. Much in our political culture, institutions, and practices has changed since the turn of the century: Our elections are far less corrupt, far more civil, and far more democratic today than 100 years ago. These salutary developments have substantially eliminated the need for what is, in my opinion, a sweeping suppression of core political speech.
Although the plurality today blithely dispenses with the need for factual findings to determine the necessity of "traditional" restrictions on speech, courts that have made such findings with regard to other campaign-free zones have, without exception, found such zones unnecessary. See, e. g., Florida Comm. for Liability Reform v. McMillan, 682 F. Supp. 1536, 1541-1542 (MD Fla. 1988); Clean-Up '84 v. Heinrich, 582 F. Supp. 125 (MD Fla. 1984), aff'd, 759 F. 2d 1511 (CA11 1985). Likewise, courts that have invalidated similar restrictions on so-called "exit polling" by the news media have, after careful factfinding, also declined to find such prohibitions "necessary." See, e. g., Firestone v. News-Press Publishing Co., 538 So. 2d 457, 459 (Fla. 1989) (invalidating Florida's 50-foot zone to the extent that it reaches outside the polling room and noting that "[a]t the evidentiary
Page: Index Previous 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007