https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United..._apportionment
Originally Posted by gnadfly
The "discussion" involves the circumstance in which a State, e.g. California, secedes from the Union, but the discussion cited, and the one continually brought forth in this thread, is based on the "joinder" of States into the Union.
Now, the question is ... where is the case law, statute, and/or any binding legal authority that says: "If a State withdraws from the Union the number of Senators and Representatives allowed for that State are distributed among the remainder of the States left in the Union."
There have been other instances in these forums when posters have "assumed" the interpretation of provisions of Constitutions and Statutes out of context of the purpose and remaining language. The statutory Maximum for the number of seats in the House is just that ... a Maximum.
Here is a decent discussion of the "435" rule and its basis:
http://www.thirty-thousand.org/docum...11July1995.pdf
Note the "theme" of setting the number of House seats is based on the 50 States, which were anticipated with Alaska and Hawaii, with the increase of 2 seats cut back to 435 after re-apportionment based on 50 states and the following census.
Based on the numbers posted for 1990 California had around 30 million "residents" and in the 2010 census around 37 million.
http://www.census.gov/2010census/pop...text.php?fl=06
Eliminating California's population from the Union would not necessarily increase the population in the remaining States to justify an increase of the seats in those States.
Highly speculative, at best, that California will withdraw.
The State has been in constant threat of bankruptcy for years.