Delaware Voters File Lawsuit to Challenge 435-Seat House Limit and Seek Second Seat

Delaware voters are suing the federal government to secure a second seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, arguing the state’s current representation is unconstitutionally diluted.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday by University of Delaware professor David Redlawsk and resident Kevin Price, targets Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and other federal officials. The plaintiffs contend that the current 435-seat limit in the House of Representatives leaves Delawareans with less representation per person than residents of any other state, NBC News reported.

By seeking to declare the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929 unconstitutional, the pair hopes to expand the House to 436 members. Their goal is to secure this additional seat in time for the 2028 presidential election, according to the lawsuit.

“The 435-seat limitation imposes a severe and avoidable disparity on Delaware’s voters,” the filing says, adding that the plaintiffs suffer a “concrete and particularized injury” from the dilution of their voice in Congress.

The disparity between Delaware and Montana

The core of the legal challenge rests on a comparison between Delaware and Montana. While Delaware has roughly 991,000 people represented by a single seat, Montana—which has just under 1.1 million residents—holds two House seats, NBC News reported.

According to wdel.com, the gap between the two states is even more pronounced when looking at more recent data. While the 2020 census figures used for apportionment showed Montana had about 95,000 more people than Delaware, July 1, 2025, estimates from the Census Bureau suggest the population difference has narrowed. Delaware’s population was estimated at 1,059,952, while Montana’s stood at 1,144,694, wdel.com reported.

U.S. House of Representatives — Photo: wdel.com

Despite this narrowing gap, Montana maintains twice the congressional representation. The plaintiffs argue this arrangement gives Delaware voters barely more than half the representation per person that Montana voters receive.

State	Estimated Population (July 2025)	House Seats
Delaware	1,059,952	1
South Dakota	935,094	1
North Dakota	799,358	1
Alaska	737,270	1

A century of static representation

The legal friction stems from a decision made nearly a century ago. In 1929, Congress established a process to redistribute a fixed number of seats following each census, effectively capping the House at 435 members, wdel.com reported.

Attorney Andrew Tutt, representing the plaintiffs, argued that while the U.S. population has exploded, the number of seats has remained frozen. He said that the 2020 census distributed seats among more than 331 million people—more than three and a half times the 92 million Americans counted in the 1910 census before the current size was set.

This stagnation creates a heavy burden for the state’s lone representative. The lawsuit points out that a single member is responsible for providing constituent services and performing oversight for nearly one million people.

Delaware is not alone in its single-seat status. Five other states—Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming—are also allocated only one representative, though none of those states have yet surpassed a population of one million, according to census data cited by wdel.com.

Lawsuit seeks to expand House seats for Delaware

The lawsuit asks a three-judge panel in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to intervene if Congress fails to act. If the court grants the request, it would order the House to expand to 436 members, specifically awarding the new seat to Delaware without changing the allocations for the other 49 states.

Critics of such a move often point to the logistical and political complexities of expanding the House. Expanding the chamber could shift the balance of power in Washington, potentially altering the influence of various regional blocs. Questions also exist regarding how new districts would be drawn and the cost of increasing the size of the legislative body.

The Commerce Department and the House clerk have not yet responded to requests for comment regarding the litigation, NBC News reported.

Should the court rule in favor of the plaintiffs, Delaware would be required to establish two congressional districts to elect its representatives, the complaint says.

“The remedy would give Delaware’s voters the additional representation their population requires and leave the allocations of the other 49 States intact,” the lawsuit says.

Keep reading