In the case of Brown et al. v. Thomson, Secretary of State of Wyoming, et al., 1982, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a dispute regarding population disparities in legislative districts within Wyoming. The plaintiffs argued that these disparities violated their right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment due to unequal representation in government. However, the court upheld Wyoming's state legislature apportionment plan with a 5-4 decision stating it did not violate Equal Protection Clause even though one county was overrepresented compared to others because this deviation from perfect population equality was minor and justified by legitimate state interests including maintaining political subdivisions like counties intact and preserving traditional forms of government structure.

In the dissenting opinion for Brown et al. v. Thomson, Secretary of State of Wyoming, et al., Justice White argued that the majority's decision to uphold Wyoming's reapportionment plan was inconsistent with previous Supreme Court rulings on equal representation. He believed that deviations from population equality should only be permitted in very limited circumstances and must serve a legitimate state interest. In this case, he did not believe such an interest existed as there were alternative plans available which would have achieved greater population equality without compromising other important principles like preserving political subdivisions or maintaining compact districts. Furthermore, he disagreed with the majority’s assertion that time constraints justified accepting a less-than-perfect plan; instead arguing it was more important to protect citizens' constitutional rights than meet legislative deadlines.