Apportionment

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apportionment or apportionment by population is a concept in United States law of allocating representatives or taxes among the US states.[1] Apportionment is based on the United States Census taken every ten years.[2] Seats in the United States House of Representatives are then apportioned among the states. Each state gets a number of seats based on its population (the minimum is one seat). Congress enacted new apportionment legislation following every census until the mid-20th century.[2] Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution requires that direct taxes be apportioned among the states by population.[3] Apportionment by population proved to be a nearly impossible, uneven and unfair requirement for collecting taxes since the states had different populations.[3] This was overturned by the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which removed the apportionment requirement from Congress imposing direct taxes.[4]

References[change | change source]

  1. "apportionment". The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Apportionment". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Calvin H. Johnson. "Apportionment of Direct Taxes: The Foul-Up In The Core of The Constitution" (PDF). Texas Law, The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  4. "Amendment XVI, Income Tax". National Constitution Center. Archived from the original on 26 May 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.