Christopher Jackman and Winfield Chasmar, Jr., Plaintiffs-Appellants v. John M. Bodine, County Clerk of Warren…

Summary

The New Jersey Supreme Court held that the State Constitution’s scheme of allocating one Senator to each county and limiting the General Assembly to sixty members, with each county guaranteed at least one Assembly seat, violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it fails to apportion both houses substantially on a population basis. The Court reversed the lower court, enjoined further elections under the existing scheme, ordered new elections by November 1965 on a constitutionally compliant plan, and required that any amendment to the legislative article be effected through a constitutional convention with delegates apportioned by population.