288
Opinion of Stevens, J.
§ 2a(c) in its entirety.4 H. R. 2508, as introduced, had three principal components that are relevant to the implied repeal analysis. First, the bill required single-member district elections: "[T]here shall be established by law a number of districts equal to the number of Representatives to which such State is so entitled; and Representatives shall be elected only from districts so established, no district to elect more than one Representative." H. R. 2508, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., 2 (1967). Second, the bill limited gerrymandering, requiring each district to "at all times be composed of contiguous territory, in as compact form as practicable." Ibid. Third, the bill required proportional representation: "[N]o district established in any State for the Ninetieth or any subsequent Congress shall contain a number of persons, excluding Indians not taxed, more than 15 per centum greater or less than the average obtained" by dividing the population by the number of Representatives. Ibid.
This bill generated great controversy and discussion. Importantly for present purposes, however, only two of the three components were discussed in depth at all. At no point, either in any of the numerous Conference Reports or lengthy floor debates, does any disagreement regarding the language expressly repealing § 2a(c) or the single-member district requirement appear. Rather, the debate was confined to the gerrymandering requirement, the proportionality rule, and the scope and duration of the temporary exceptions to the broad prohibition against at-large elections.
4 Specifically, § 2a(c) would have been expressly repealed by the following language, present in all but the final version of H. R. 2508: "That section 22 of the Act of June 18, 1929, entitled 'An Act to provide for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for apportionment of Representatives' (46 Stat. 26), as amended, is amended as follows:
"Subsection (c) is amended by striking out all of the language in that subsection and inserting in place thereof the following: . . . ." H. R. 2508, 90th Cong., 1st Sess., 1 (1967).
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