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24 

MOORE v. HARPER 

Opinion of the Court 

Orthopedic  Associates,  P. A.  v.  Allstate  Ins.  Co.,  559  U. S. 
393,  419–420  (2010)  (Stevens,  J.,  concurring  in  part  and 
concurring in judgment).  Many rules “are rationally capa-
ble of classification as either.”  Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U. S. 
460, 472 (1965); see also Sun Oil Co. v. Wortman, 486 U. S. 
717,  726  (1988)  (“Except  at  the  extremes,  the  terms  ‘sub-
stance’ and ‘procedure’ precisely describe very little except
a dichotomy.”).  Procedure, after all, is often used as a vehi-
cle to achieve substantive ends.  When a governor vetoes a 
bill because of a disagreement with its policy consequences,
has the governor exercised a procedural or substantive re-
straint on lawmaking?  Smiley did not endorse such murky
inquiries  into  the  nature  of  constitutional  restraints,  and 
we see no neat distinction today. 

D 
Were  there  any  doubt,  historical  practice  confirms  that
state legislatures remain bound by state constitutional re-
straints  when  exercising  authority  under  the  Elections
Clause.  We  have  long  looked  to  “settled  and  established 
practice”  to  interpret  the  Constitution.    The  Pocket  Veto 
Case, 279 U. S. 655, 689 (1929).  And we have found histor-
ical  practice  particularly  pertinent  when  it  comes  to  the 
Elections and Electors Clauses.  Smiley, 285 U. S., at 369 
(Elections Clause); Chiafalo v. Washington, 591 U. S. ___, 
___–___ (2020) (slip op., at 12–14) (Electors Clause).

Two state constitutional provisions adopted shortly after 
the founding offer the strongest evidence.  Delaware’s 1792 
Constitution provided that the State’s congressional repre-
sentatives “shall be voted for at the same places where rep-
resentatives  in  the  State  legislature  are  voted  for,  and  in
the  same  manner.”  Art.  VIII,  §2.  Even  though  the  Elec-
tions Clause stated that the “Places” and “Manner” of fed-
eral elections shall be “prescribed” by the state legislatures,
the Delaware Constitution expressly enacted rules govern-