Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-1314_3ea4.pdf
Page Number: 35

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

31 

Opinion of the Court 

but that those intrusted with it should be kept in depend­
ence on the people.”  Id., No. 37, at 223. 

The people’s ultimate sovereignty had been expressed by 

John  Locke  in  1690,  a  near  century  before  the  Constitu­
tion’s formation: 

“[T]he Legislative being only a Fiduciary Power to act 
for  certain  ends,  there  remains  still  in  the  People  a 
Supream  Power  to  remove  or  alter  the  Legislative,
when  they  find  the  Legislative  act  contrary  to  the 
trust reposed in them.  For all Power given with trust
for  the  attaining  an  end,  being  limited  by  that  end,
whenever  that  end  is  manifestly  neglected,  or  op­
posed, the trust must necessarily be forfeited, and the 
Power  devolve  into  the  hands  of  those  that  gave  it,
who may place it anew where they shall think best for 
their  safety  and  security.”  Two  Treatises  of  Govern­
ment §149, p. 385 (P. Laslett ed. 1964). 

Our Declaration of Independence, ¶2, drew from Locke in 
stating: “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving 
their just powers from the consent of the governed.”  And 
our  fundamental  instrument  of  government  derives  its
authority  from  “We  the  People.”  U. S.  Const.,  Preamble. 
As  this  Court  stated,  quoting  Hamilton:  “[T]he  true  prin­
ciple of a republic is, that the people should choose whom
they  please  to  govern  them.”  Powell  v.  McCormack,  395 
U. S. 486, 540–541 (1969) (quoting 2 Debates on the Fed­
eral Constitution 257 (J. Elliot ed. 1876)).  In this light, it
would  be  perverse  to  interpret  the  term  “Legislature”  in 
the  Elections  Clause  so  as  to  exclude  lawmaking  by  the
people, particularly where such lawmaking is intended to 
check  legislators’  ability  to  choose  the  district  lines  they
run  in,  thereby  advancing  the  prospect  that  Members  of 
Congress  will  in  fact  be  “chosen  . . .  by  the  People  of  the 
several  States,”  Art. I,  §2.    See  Cain,  121  Yale  L. J.,  at 
1817.