Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1271_3f14.pdf
Page Number: 38

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

3 

KAVANAUGH, J., concurring 

only to state court interpretations of state statutes, but also 
to state court interpretations of state constitutions.  And in 
reviewing  state  court  interpretations  of  state  law,  “we 
necessarily must examine the law of the State as it existed 
prior to the action of the [state] court.”  Bush, 531 U. S., at 
114 (Rehnquist, C. J., concurring).

Petitioners here, however, have disclaimed any argument 
that the North Carolina Supreme Court misinterpreted the
North Carolina Constitution or other state law.  See ante, 
at  29.2    For  now,  therefore,  this  Court  need  not,  and 
ultimately  does  not,  adopt  any  specific  standard  for  our 
review of a state court’s interpretation of state law in a case
implicating the Elections Clause.  See ante, at 28 (“We do
not adopt these or any other test by which we can measure
state court interpretations of state law in cases implicating
the  Elections  Clause”). 
Instead,  the  Court  today  says
simply that “state courts do not have free rein” and “hold[s]
only  that  state  courts  may  not  transgress  the  ordinary
bounds of judicial review.”  Ante, at 26, 29.  In other words, 
the  Court  has  recognized  and  articulated  a  general
principle for federal court review of state court decisions in 
federal election cases.  In the future, the Court should and 
presumably  will  distill  that  general  principle  into  a  more
specific standard such as the one advanced by Chief Justice
Rehnquist.

With those additional comments, I agree with the Court’s
conclusions  that  (i)  state  laws  governing  federal  elections 
are subject to ordinary state court review, and (ii) a state
court’s interpretation of state law in a case implicating the 
Elections Clause is in turn subject to federal court review. 

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2 Instead,  petitioners  make  the  broader  argument,  which  the  Court
today properly rejects, that the Elections Clause bars state courts from
reviewing state laws for compliance with the relevant state constitution.