# Baker v. Carr **369 U.S. 186 (1962).** The Supreme Court held 6–2 that a challenge to legislative malapportionment presents a justiciable question rather than a nonjusticiable [[Political Question Doctrine]] issue, opening federal courts to redistricting claims for the first time. Chief Justice Warren later called it the most important case of his tenure. Its significance for the modern map wars is structural and double-edged: *Baker* opened the federal courthouse door that [[Rucho v. Common Cause]] (2019) later closed to partisan-gerrymandering claims specifically, by holding those claims nonjusticiable on the very grounds *Baker* had set aside. See [[Reynolds v. Sims]].