November 20, 2005

Senator from Delaware and "one-person, one-vote"

According to this AP story, today on Fox News Sunday Senator Biden said he was deeply troubled by Alito's questioning the legitimacy of the Warren Court's "one-person, one-vote" ruling. What's so delicious is Biden's being from one of the smallest states and representing constituents who have far greater influence in the senate than justified by their puny numbers. Like every state, Delaware has two votes in the Senate, even though its population is only 807,000, while California has only two votes and a population of 35,116,000. A Delaware voter has three and a half times more votes in the Senate than the average American, and 43-times more votes than someone in California. The obvious solution for Biden, who apparently values one-person, one-vote so greatly, is to resign his seat (or remain but refuse to vote) since Delaware's size doesn't merit even a single Senate seat.