Cite as: 525 U. S. 316 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
davit that "[i]t is substantially likely that voters in Maricopa County, Arizona, Bergen County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, LaSalle County, Illinois, Orange County, California, St. Johns County, Florida, Gallatin County, Montana, Forsyth County, Georgia, and Loudoun County, Virginia, will suffer vote dilution in state and local elections as a result of the [Bureau's] Plan." Weber Affidavit 77-78. Several of the appellees reside in these counties,3 and several of the States in which these counties are located require use of federal decennial census population numbers for their state legislative redistricting. The New Jersey Constitution, for instance, requires that state senators be apportioned among Senate districts "as nearly as may be according to the number of their inhabitants as reported in the last preceding decennial census of the United States." Art. IV, § 1, ¶1. Similarly, the Pennsylvania Constitution requires that "[i]n each year following the year of the Federal decennial census, a Legislative Reapportionment Commission shall be constituted for the purpose of reapportioning the Commonwealth." Art. 2, § 17(a). Several of the other States cited by Dr. Weber have comparable laws.4
3 The appellees that reside in the counties that Dr. Weber predicts will lose population relative to other counties if statistical sampling is used in the decennial census are Matthew Glavin (Forsyth County, Georgia), Stephen Gons (Cumberland County, Pennsylvania), James F. McLaughlin (Bergen County, New Jersey), John Taylor (Loudoun County, Virginia), Deborah Hardman (St. Johns County, Florida), Jim Lacy (Orange County, California), Helen V. England (Maricopa County, Arizona), Amie S. Carter (Gallatin County, Montana), and Michael T. James (LaSalle County, Illinois). Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, App. in No. 98- 564, pp. 9-12.
4 See, e. g., Fla. Stat. § 11.031(1) (1998) ("All acts of the Florida Legislature based upon population and all constitutional apportionments shall be based upon the last federal decennial statewide census"); Ga. Const., Art. 3, § 2 ("The apportionment of the Senate and of the House of Representatives shall be changed by the General Assembly as necessary after each United States decennial census"); Ill. Const., Art. 4, § 3(b) ("In the year following each Federal decennial census year, the General Assembly by
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