Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-1314_3ea4.pdf
Page Number: 19

Cite as:  576 U. S. ____ (2015) 

15 

Opinion of the Court 

proceed to the merits.15 

III 
On the merits, we instructed the parties to address this
question:  Do  the  Elections  Clause  of  the  United  States
Constitution and 2 U. S. C. §2a(c) permit Arizona’s use of 
a  commission  to  adopt  congressional  districts?    The  Elec­
tions  Clause  is  set  out  at  the  start  of  this  opinion,  supra, 
at 2.  Section 2a(c) provides: 

“Until  a  State  is  redistricted  in  the  manner  pro­
vided by the law thereof after any apportionment, the 
Representatives to which such State is entitled under
such  apportionment  shall  be  elected  in  the  following
manner:  [setting  out  five  federally  prescribed  redis­
tricting procedures].” 

Before  focusing  directly  on  the  statute  and  constitutional 
prescriptions  in  point,  we  summarize  this  Court’s  prece­
dent  relating  to  appropriate  state  decisionmakers  for 
redistricting  purposes.    Three  decisions  compose  the  rele­
vant  case  law:  Ohio  ex  rel.  Davis  v.  Hildebrant,  241  U. S. 
565 (1916); Hawke v. Smith (No. 1), 253 U. S. 221 (1920); 
and Smiley v. Holm, 285 U. S. 355 (1932). 

A 
Davis  v.  Hildebrant  involved  an  amendment  to  the 

Constitution of Ohio vesting in the people the right, exer­
cisable  by  referendum,  to  approve  or  disapprove  by  popu­
lar vote any law enacted by the State’s legislature.  A 1915 
Act redistricting the State for the purpose of congressional 

—————— 

He  forgets  that  the  party  invoking  federal-court  jurisdiction  in  this 
case, and inviting our review, is the Arizona State Legislature. 

15 JUSTICE  THOMAS,  on  the  way  to  deciding  that  the  Arizona  Legisla­
ture  lacks  standing,  first  addresses  the  merits.    In  so  doing,  he  over­
looks that, in the cases he features, it was entirely immaterial whether 
the law involved was adopted by a representative body or by the people, 
through exercise of the initiative.