What is Apportionment?
'''Apportionment''' or '''apportionment by population''' is a concept in [[Law of the United States|United States law]] of [[wikt:allocate|allocating]] [[Representation (politics)|representatives]] or [[tax]]es among the [[US states]].<ref name=apportFD>{{cite web |url=http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/apportionment |title=apportionment |website=The Free Dictionary |publisher=Farlex |access-date=18 May 2016}}</ref> Apportionment is based on the [[United States Census]] taken every ten years.<ref name=census>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/history/www/reference/apportionment/ |title=Apportionment |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=18 May 2016}}</ref> 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]].<ref name=census/> [[Article One of the United States Constitution#Section 2: House of Representatives|Article I, Section 2]] of the [[United States Constitution]] requires that direct taxes be apportioned among the states by population.<ref name=TexLaw>{{cite web |url=https://law.utexas.edu/faculty/calvinjohnson/directtax.pdf |title=Apportionment of Direct Taxes: The Foul-Up In The Core of The Constitution |author=Calvin H. Johnson |publisher=Texas Law, The University of Texas at Austin |access-date=18 May 2016}}</ref> Apportionment by population proved to be a nearly impossible, uneven and unfair requirement for collecting taxes since the states had different populations.<ref name=TexLaw/> This was overturned by the [[Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]] which removed the apportionment requirement from Congress imposing direct taxes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xvi |title=Amendment XVI, Income Tax |publisher=National Constitution Center |access-date=18 May 2016