Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-1314_3ea4.pdf
Page Number: 46

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

7 

ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting 

cies in the United States Senate: “if Vacancies happen by
Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legis-
lature of any State, the Executive thereof may make tem-
porary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legis-
lature,  which  shall  then  fill  such  Vacancies.”    §3,  cl. 2.1 
The  references  to  “the  Recess  of  the  Legislature  of  any
State”  and  “the  next  Meeting  of the  Legislature”  are  only 
consistent  with  an  institutional  legislature,  and  make  no 
sense under the majority’s reading.  The people as a whole
(schoolchildren  and  a  few  unnamed  others  excepted)  do
not take a “Recess.” 

The  list  goes  on.  Article  IV  provides  that  the  “United
States  shall  guarantee  to  every  State  in  this  Union  a
Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of 
them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legisla-
ture, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be 
convened),  against  domestic  Violence.”  §4.  It  is  perhaps
conceivable  that  all  the  people  of  a  State  could  be  “con-
vened”—although  this  would  seem  difficult  during  an
“Invasion”  or  outbreak  of  “domestic  Violence”—but  the 
only natural reading of the Clause is that “the Executive”
may  submit  a  federal  application  when  “the  Legislature” 
as a representative body cannot be convened.

Article  VI  provides  that  the  “Senators  and  Representa-
tives  before  mentioned,  and  the  Members  of  the  several 
State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, 
both  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  several  States,  shall 
be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitu-
tion.”  Cl. 3.  Unless the majority is prepared  to make all
the people of every State swear an “Oath or Affirmation, to
support  this  Constitution,”  this  provision  can  only  refer
to  the  “several  State  Legislatures”  in  their  institutional
capacity.

Each of these provisions offers strong structural indica-

—————— 

1 This provision was modified by the Seventeenth Amendment.