仙台高裁は「違憲」　７月参院選で初―１票の格差訴訟

　「１票の格差」が最大３．０３倍となった７月の参院選は投票価値の平等を定めた憲法に違反するとして、弁護士グループが選挙無効を求めた訴訟の判決が１日、仙台高裁であった。小林久起裁判長は「違憲」との判断を示した。無効請求は退けた。７月参院選で違憲判決は初めて。
　小林裁判長は、今回の格差について「著しい不平等状態に至っていた」と判断した上で、前回２０１９年選挙（最大格差３．００倍）以降の国会の対応を検討した。
　そこで、最高裁からさらなる格差是正を求められていたのに区割りなどを変更しなかったほか、国勢調査の結果から、格差が拡大すると昨年１１月に判明していたのに放置したと指摘。「裁量権を逸脱し、憲法上要求される合理的期間内に是正をしなかったと評価せざるを得ない」と結論付けた。（2022/11/01-17:20）

Sendai High Court ruled Tuesday that Japan's House of Councillors election in July was unconstitutional in terms of vote-value disparity.
   It is the first ruling that the July 10 election for the upper chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, was held in violation of the Constitution.
   Presiding Judge Hisaki Kobayashi, however, dismissed the plaintiffs' demand for the invalidation of the results of the Upper House poll, in which the maximum vote-value disparity stood at 3.03 times.
   The ruling by the court in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, was the eighth handed down among 16 lawsuits over the election's constitutionality, filed by two groups of lawyers with 14 high courts and high court branches across the country. The groups claim that the Upper House election violated the Constitution, which calls for the equality of votes.
   Before the latest verdict, four rulings found that the election was held in a state of unconstitutionality while three rulings concluded that the poll was constitutional.