Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-1314_3ea4.pdf
Page Number: 44

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

5 

ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting 

majority’s  preferred  definition,  “the  Legislature”  referred 
to an institutional body of representatives, not the people 
at large.

Any ambiguity about the meaning of “the Legislature” is
removed  by  other  founding  era  sources. 
“[E]very  state 
constitution  from  the  Founding  Era  that  used  the  term
legislature  defined  it  as  a  distinct  multimember  entity
comprised  of  representatives.”    Morley,  The  Intratextual 
Independent  “Legislature”  and  the  Elections  Clause,  109 
Nw.  U.  L. Rev.  Online  131,  147, and  n.  101  (2015)  (citing 
eleven  State  Constitutions).  The  Federalist  Papers  are
replete  with  references  to  “legislatures”  that  can  only  be 
understood  as  referring  to  representative  institutions. 
E.g.,  The  Federalist  No.  27,  pp.  174–175  (C.  Rossiter  ed.
1961) (A. Hamilton) (describing “the State legislatures” as
“select bodies of men”); id., No. 60, at 368 (contrasting “the 
State  legislatures”  with  “the  people”).  Noah  Webster’s 
heralded  American  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language
defines  “legislature”  as  “[t]he  body  of  men  in  a  state  or 
kingdom,  invested  with  power  to  make  and  repeal  laws.”
2 An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). 
It  continues,  “The  legislatures  of  most  of  the  states  in
America  . . .  consist  of  two  houses  or  branches.”    Ibid. 
(emphasis deleted).

I could go on, but the Court has said this before.  As we 
put it nearly a century ago, “Legislature” was “not a term
of  uncertain  meaning  when  incorporated  into  the  Consti-
tution.”  Hawke, 253 U. S., at 227.  “What it meant when 
adopted  it  still  means  for  the  purpose  of  interpretation.” 
Ibid.    “A  Legislature”  is  “the  representative  body  which
ma[kes]  the  laws  of  the  people.”  Ibid.;  see  Smiley,  285 
U. S.,  at  365  (relying  on  this  definition);  Colorado  Gen. 
Assembly  v.  Salazar,  541  U. S.  1093,  1095 
(2004)
(Rehnquist,  C. J.,  dissenting  from  denial  of  certiorari) 
(same).