18
MOORE v. HARPER
Opinion of the Court
“retain autonomy to establish their own governmental processes.” Id., at 816.
The significant point for present purposes is that the
Court in Arizona State Legislature recognized that whatever authority was responsible for redistricting, that entity
remained subject to constraints set forth in the State Constitution. The Court embraced the core principle espoused
in Hildebrant and Smiley “that redistricting is a legislative
function, to be performed in accordance with the State’s
prescriptions for lawmaking, which may include the referendum and the Governor’s veto.” 576 U. S., at 808; see also
id., at 840–841 (ROBERTS, C. J., dissenting) (recognizing
that Hildebrant and Smiley support the imposition of “some
constraints on the legislature”). The Court dismissed the
argument that the Elections Clause divests state constitutions of the power to enforce checks against the exercise of
legislative power: “Nothing in [the Elections] Clause instructs, nor has this Court ever held, that a state legislature
may prescribe regulations on the time, place, and manner
of holding federal elections in defiance of provisions of the
State’s constitution.” 576 U. S., at 817–818 (majority opinion).
The reasoning we unanimously embraced in Smiley commands our continued respect: A state legislature may not
“create congressional districts independently of ” requirements imposed “by the state constitution with respect to the
enactment of laws.” 285 U. S., at 373.
B
The legislative defendants and the dissent both contend
that, because the Federal Constitution gives state legislatures the power to regulate congressional elections, only
that Constitution can restrain the exercise of that power.
Brief for Petitioners 22; post, at 17 (opinion of THOMAS, J.).
The legislative defendants cite for support Federalist
No. 78, which explains that the wielding of legislative