Earl Warren called Baker v. Carr (1962) “the most vital” decision of his landmark, 16-year tenure as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court—more important than Griswold v. Connecticut, Miranda v. Arizona, and even Brown v. Board of Education. Baker set the court on a glide path that led to the “one person, one vote” standard enunciated in Reynolds v. Sims two years later, in the process finding the composition of most state legislatures to be unconstitutional. As Baker nears its 60^th anniversary, Bradley Smith reflects on the history and circumstances that gave rise to the decisions in Baker and its progeny, what the court got right, what it got wrong, and how it has changed the way Americans think about voting and self-governance.