22
MOORE v. HARPER
Opinion of the Court
of voting, protection of voters, prevention of fraud and corrupt practices, counting of votes, duties of inspectors and
canvassers, and making and publication of election returns.” Smiley, 285 U. S., at 366. In contrast, a simple upor-down vote suffices to ratify an amendment to the Constitution. Providing consent to the purchase of land or electing Senators involves similarly straightforward exercises of
authority. But fashioning regulations governing federal
elections “unquestionably calls for the exercise of lawmaking authority.” Arizona State Legislature, 576 U. S., at 808,
n. 17. And the exercise of such authority in the context of
the Elections Clause is subject to the ordinary constraints
on lawmaking in the state constitution.
In sum, our precedents have long rejected the view that
legislative action under the Elections Clause is purely federal in character, governed only by restraints found in the
Federal Constitution.
C
Addressing our decisions in Smiley and Hildebrant, both
the legislative defendants and JUSTICE THOMAS concede
that at least some state constitutional provisions can restrain a state legislature’s exercise of authority under the
Elections Clause. But they read those cases to differentiate
between procedural and substantive constraints. Brief for
Petitioners 24; post, at 21–22 (opinion of THOMAS, J.). Smiley, in their view, stands for the proposition that state constitutions may impose only procedural hoops through which
legislatures must jump in crafting rules governing federal
elections. This concededly “formalistic” approach views the
Governor’s veto at issue in Smiley as one such procedural
restraint. Tr. of Oral Arg. 62. But when it comes to substantive provisions, their argument goes, our precedents
have nothing to say.
This argument adopts too cramped a view of our decision
in Smiley. Chief Justice Hughes’s opinion for the Court
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents