The unprecedented Gomillion v. Lightfoot came to the Supreme Court because the borders of Tuskegee, Alabama were redrawn. They went from a square shape to an irregular one to exclude black neighborhoods, on the outer edges of the city, violating the 15th Amendment, denying them a vote because of race. This practice is also known as racial gerrymandering. On October 18 and 19 of 1960 this case was argued. The decision was made on November 14, 1960.

The case was pulled up from the Fifth Circuit of Appellate Courts. The Plaintiff, the African American citizens of Tuskegee, Alabama were accusing the Mayor of Tuskegee, Alabama, Lightfoot, denying constitutional rights to the citizens. The case was ruled on just after another very important racial case, Barker v. Carr. This case furth

Whittaker, wrote a concurring opinion agreeing that the border move was Unconstitutional, but under the fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause because the state was redrawing borders to the black citizen's detriment. He felt that voting was not denied because of race. In fact, border changes occur all the time and the blacks still had a right to vote for any candidate or position that falls in their area. He felt that the re-bordering was a segregation attempt illegal under the precedent of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas.

His opinion also covered the concern of Federalism. The question was, Why should a federal court have jurisdiction over a state and municipality business? Frankfurter answered with, "When a state exercises power wholly within the domain of state interest, it is insulated from federal judicial review, but such insulation is not carried over when state power is used as

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 621
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)