Editing Midland, Texas (section)

=== ''Avery v. Midland County'' ===
In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case ''[[Avery v. Midland County]]''. Midland mayor Hank Avery had sued Midland County, challenging the electoral-districting scheme in effect for elections to the County Commissioner's Court. The county districts geographically quartered the county, but Midland, in the northwestern quarter, had 97% of the county's population. A judge, elected on an at-large basis, provided a fifth vote, but the result was that the three rural commissioners, representing only 3% of the county's population, held a majority of the votes.

The Court held that the scheme violated the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]]'s [[Equal Protection clause]]. A dissenting minority held that this example of the [[Earl Warren|Warren]] Court's policy of [[Incorporation (Bill of Rights)|incorporation]] at the local-government level exceeded its [[U.S. Constitution|constitutional]] authority.