Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-465_i425.pdf
Page Number: 14.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

11 

Opinion of the Court 

States—Maryland and Kentucky—used electoral bodies se-
lected by voters to choose state senators (and in Kentucky’s 
case, the Governor too).  The Constitutions of both States, 
Maryland’s drafted just before and Kentucky’s just after the 
U. S. Constitution, incorporated language that would have
made  this  case  look  quite  different.    Both  state  Constitu-
tions required all electors to take an oath “to elect without
favour, affection, partiality, or prejudice, such persons for
Senators, as they, in their judgment and conscience, believe 
best  qualified  for  the  office.”  Md.  Declaration  of  Rights,
Art. XVIII (1776); see Ky. Const., Art. I, §14 (1792) (using 
identical language except adding “[and] for Governor”).  The 
emphasis on independent “judgment and conscience” called 
for  the  exercise  of  elector  discretion.  But  although  the
Framers knew of Maryland’s Constitution, no language of 
that  kind  made  it  into  the  document  they  drafted.    See  1 
Farrand 218, 289 (showing that Madison and Hamilton re-
ferred to the Maryland system at the Convention). 

The Electors argue that three simple words stand in for
more explicit language about discretion.  Article II, §1 first
names the members of the Electoral College: “electors.”  The 
Twelfth  Amendment  then  says  that  electors  shall  “vote”
and that they shall do so by “ballot.”  The “plain meaning” 
of those terms, the Electors say, requires electors to have
“freedom  of  choice.”  Brief  for  Petitioners  29,  31.  If  the 
States could control their votes, “the electors would not be 
‘Electors,’ and their ‘vote by Ballot’ would not be a ‘vote.’ ” 
Id., at 31. 

But  those  words  need  not  always  connote  independent 
choice.  Suppose  a  person  always  votes  in  the  way  his 
spouse, or pastor, or union tells him to.  We might question 
his judgment, but we would have no problem saying that he
“votes” or fills in a “ballot.”  In those cases, the choice is in 
someone else’s hands, but the words still apply because they 
can signify a mechanical act.  Or similarly, suppose in a sys-