Rich Rostrom
2009-07-06 22:15:13
R De Castro: the rule is
“the Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand”.
It’s not a floor, but a ceiling – a cap on the number of Representatives for any given level of population. For instance, if the U.S. has 300,000 people, there can be at most 10 Representatives. Less than 1/30,000 would be permitted.
Today, there are 435 Representatives for the 280.9M people recorded in the 2000 Census as residing in the 50 states: 1 for every 645,633 people. 1/645,633 is less than 1/30,000.
That limit has never been exceeded, so there is no question of legality.
