Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-1314_3ea4.pdf
Page Number: 23

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

19 

Opinion of the Court 

constitutional  amendments,  in  contrast,  “the  Legislature”
has a different identity, one that excludes the referendum 
and the Governor’s veto.  Hawke, see supra, at 16.17 

In  sum,  our  precedent  teaches  that  redistricting  is  a 
legislative  function,  to  be  performed  in  accordance  with 
the  State’s  prescriptions  for  lawmaking,  which  may  in­
clude the referendum and the Governor’s veto.  The exer­
cise of the initiative, we acknowledge, was not at issue in 
our  prior  decisions.    But  as  developed  below,  we  see  no 
constitutional  barrier  to  a  State’s  empowerment  of  its 
people by embracing that form of lawmaking. 

B 
We take up next the statute the Court asked the parties
to  address,  2  U. S. C.  §2a(c),  a  measure  modeled  on  the 
Reapportionment Act Congress passed in 1911, Act of Aug.
8 (1911 Act), ch. 5, §4, 37 Stat. 14.  Section 2a(c), we hold,
permits  use  of  a  commission  to  adopt  Arizona’s  congres­
sional districts.  See supra, at 15.18 

From  1862  through  1901,  the  decennial  congressional 

apportionment  Acts  provided  that  a  State  would  be  re­

—————— 

17 The list of constitutional provisions in which the word “legislature”
appears,  appended  to  THE  CHIEF  JUSTICE’s  opinion,  post,  at  28–32,  is 
illustrative  of  the  variety  of  functions  state  legislatures  can  be  called
upon  to  exercise.    For  example,  Art. I,  §2,  cl. 1,  superseded  by  the
Seventeenth Amendment, assigned an “electoral” function.  See Smiley, 
285  U. S.,  at  365.    Article  I,  §3,  cl. 2,  assigns  an  “appointive”  function. 
Article  I,  §8,  cl.  17,  assigns  a  “consenting”  function,  see  Smiley,  285 
U. S.,  at  366,  as  does  Art. IV,  §3,  cl. 1.    “[R]atifying”  functions  are
assigned in Art. V, Amdt. 18, §3, Amdt. 20, §6, and Amdt. 22, §2.  See 
Hawke, 253 U. S., at 229.  But Art. I, §4, cl. 1, unquestionably calls for
the exercise of lawmaking authority.  That authority can be carried out 
by a representative body, but if a State so chooses, legislative authority
can also be lodged in the people themselves.  See infra, at 24–35. 

18 The  AIRC  referenced  §2a(c)  in  briefing  below,  see  Motion  to  Dis­
miss 8–9, and Response to Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction
12–14, in No. 12–1211 (D Ariz.), and in its motion to dismiss or affirm
in this Court, see Motion to Dismiss or Affirm 28–31.