Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris

Background

Residents and voters of Brooklyn challenged New York City’s Board of Estimate. The board had three citywide officials (mayor, comptroller, council president) with two votes each and five borough presidents with one vote each. The board handled zoning, contracts, franchises, and shared budget powers over about 7 million residents and a budget surpassing $25 billion. Lower courts split on measurement methods; the District Court calculated a 132.9% population deviation and the Court of Appeals affirmed the challenge.

Reasoning

The core question was whether board elections must follow the one-person, one-vote principle and how to measure voter equality. The Court held that voters elect all eight members and that population-based measures from prior reapportionment cases apply. The Court rejected the city’s suggested Banzhaf voting-power index as unrealistic. When at-large members are counted, the parties agreed the deviation is about 78%; the Banzhaf approach would show about 30.8% for nonbudget matters but was not accepted. The Court found the city’s stated reasons insufficient to justify such a large deviation and affirmed the lower courts’ judgment.

Real world impact

The decision recognizes that voters in more populous boroughs were substantially underrepresented. New York City must alter its Board structure or representation method so districts have substantially equal populations per representative. The ruling governs how local governments may design elected bodies with broad, citywide powers.

Dissents or concurrances

Two Justices agreed with the judgment but differed on calculation. Justice Brennan would exclude at-large members from the population count. Justice Blackmun agreed with including at-large members and stressed that even the Banzhaf numbers show unconstitutional inequality.