In 1958, August “Gus” Scholle, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, challenged the unequal population of Michigan State Senate districts after his Oakland County district contained more than 12 times as many people as an outstate district yet elected the same number of senators, leaving rural areas with disproportionate influence in the Legislature. In 1959 he filed a historic lawsuit arguing that these disparities violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment because each citizen should have substantially equal voting power. Although the Michigan Supreme Court denied relief in 1960, it later ruled in favor of Scholle’s position in 1962 and again in 1964 after remands from the U.S. Supreme Court following decisions in cases from Tennessee and Alabama. The Scholle case helped establish the principle that state legislative districts must be apportioned on a one person — one vote basis.