History sometimes is not as far off as it might initially seem.

On Feb. 17, 1964, the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, for the third of seven weeks, was “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles. The top movie was “Tom Jones,” a British comedy that went on to win four Oscars, including Best Picture. The Chicago Bears were the reigning NFL champions, having defeated the New York Giants 14-10 on Dec. 29 at Wrigley Field.

Also that day, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Wesberry v. Sanders, a 6-3 ruling that established Congressional districts needed to have roughly equal populations. The court struck down a Georgia apportionment statute under which some districts had almost three times as many residents as others, effectively diluting the voting power of those in the denser divisions.

It’s 58 years later and we’re still fighting over how much power Congress should have in regulating election rules and to what extent federal courts should be involved in keeping things fair from state to state.

A common exception from the majority opinion is Justice Hugo Black’s phrasing that the portion of Article I of the U.S. Constitution stipulating “Representatives be chosen ‘by the People of the several States’ means that, as nearly as is practicable, one man’s vote in a congressional election is to be worth as much as another’s.”

Yet the next sentence is worth exploring:

“This rule is followed automatically, of course, when Representatives are chosen as a group on a statewide basis, as was a widespread practice in the first 50 years of our Nation’s history.”

In 1842, when Congress enacted a nationwide requirement for single-member districts, six states still had at-large elections for House members. Some suggest returning to this system via Constitutional amendment as a means of undercutting gerrymandering. On Feb. 9, writer Gregg Easterbrook called this the “only surefire solution to this built-in polarizing practice by both parties.”

It’s almost impossible to imagine implementing this in Illinois. Consider the length of the November ballot if we all had a hand in choosing 17 Congressional winners. The campaign implications could be even worse, given the population distribution is weighted so heavily toward one corner of the state.

When it comes to subverting the system, I’m much more interested in considering not the borders of each district but the size. In 1793 each district had about 34,000 residents. Starting next year that figure will be about 761,169. The number has climbed steadily since 1929, when Congress capped the size of the House at 435.

Recalculating the number of House districts could have its own unintended consequences, but it’s worth pondering the implications in Illinois and nationwide.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on Twitter @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.