Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-1314_3ea4.pdf
Page Number: 50

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

11 

ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting 

single  instance  in  which  the  identity  of  these  actors 
changes as they exercise different functions. 

The majority attempts to draw support from precedent,
but  our  cases  only  further  undermine  its  position.    In 
Hawke, this Court considered the meaning of “the Legisla-
tur[e]” in Article V, which outlines the process for ratifying
constitutional  amendments.  The  Court  concluded  that 
“Legislature”  meant  “the  representative  body  which 
ma[kes]  the  laws  of  the  people.”    253  U. S.,  at  227.    The 
Court then explained that “[t]he term is often used in the 
Constitution  with  this  evident  meaning.”  Ibid.  (emphasis
added).  The  Court  proceeded  to  list  other  constitutional
provisions  that  assign  different  functions  to  the  “Legisla-
ture,” just as the majority does today.  Id., at 227–228; see 
ante, at 19, n. 17.   

Unlike the majority today, however, the Court in Hawke 
never  hinted  that  the  meaning  of  “Legislature”  varied 
across  those  different  provisions  because  they  assigned 
different functions.  To the contrary, the Court drew infer-
ences from the Seventeenth Amendment and its predeces-
sor,  Article  I,  §3—in  which  “the  Legislature”  played  an 
electoral function—to define the “Legislature” in Article V, 
which assigned it a ratification function.  See 253 U. S., at 
228.  The  Court  concluded  that  “Legislature”  refers  to  a 
representative  body,  whatever  its  function.  As  the  Court 
put  it,  “There  can  be  no  question  that  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  clearly  understood  and  carefully  used  the
terms  in  which  that  instrument  referred  to  the  action  of 
the  legislatures  of  the  States.    When  they  intended  that
direct action by the people should be had they were no less
accurate  in  the  use  of  apt  phraseology  to  carry  out  such
purpose.”  Ibid. (citing Art. I, §2). 

Smiley,  the  leading  precedent  on  the  meaning  of  “the
Legislature” in the Elections Clause, reaffirmed the defini-
tion  announced  in  Hawke.  In  Smiley,  the  petitioner  ar-
gued—as  the  Commission  does  here—that  “the  Legisla-