te; subject,
however, to the limitation that the Constitution, in article I, section
2, adopts as qualifications for voting for members of Congress those
qualifications established by the States for voting for the most
numerous branch of their legislatures.

To the latter extent the right to vote for members of Congress has been
declared to be fundamentally based upon the Constitution and as never
having been intended to be left within the exclusive control of the
States.[1222]

Reduction of State's Representation

"Questions relating to the apportionment of representatives among the
several States are political in their nature and reside exclusively
within the determination of Congress * * *" Consequently, a United
States District Court was obliged to dismiss an action for damages
against the Virginia Secretary of State for the latter's refusal to
certify the plaintiff as candidate for the office of Congressman at
large, inasmuch as the plaintiff's case rested on the theory that the
apportionment act of Congress and the Redistricting Act of Virginia, by
failing to take into account the disenfranchisement of 60% of the voters
occasioned by the poll tax, were both invalid, and that Virginia
accordingly was entitled to only four instead of nine Congressmen, which
four were to be elected at large.[1223] "It is well known that the
elective franchise has been limited or denied to citizens in various
States of the union in past years, but no serious attempt has been made
by Congress to enforce the mandate of the second section of the
Fourteenth Amendment, and it is noteworthy that there are no instances
in which the courts have attempted to revise the apportionment of
Representatives by Congress."[1224]

DISQUALIFICATION OF OFFICERS

Section 3. No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in
Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any
office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State,
who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an
officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature,
or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the
Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or
rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies
thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove
such disability.

In General

The right to remove disabilities im