Page:Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Comm’n.pdf/23

Opinion of the Court

constitutional amendments, in contrast, “the Legislature” has a different identity, one that excludes the referendum and the Governor’s veto. Hawke, see supra, at 16.^[1]

In sum, our precedent teaches 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. The exer­cise of the initiative, we acknowledge, was not at issue in our prior decisions. But as developed below, we see no constitutional barrier to a State’s empowerment of its people by embracing that form of lawmaking.

B

We take up next the statute the Court asked the parties to address, 2 U. S. C. §2a(c), a measure modeled on the Reapportionment Act Congress passed in 1911, Act of Aug. 8 (1911 Act), ch. 5, §4, 37 Stat. 14. Section 2a(c), we hold, permits use of a commission to adopt Arizona’s congres­sional districts. See supra, at 15.^[2]

From 1862 through 1901, the decennial congressional apportionment Acts provided that a State would be re-

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1. The list of constitutional provisions in which the word “legislature” appears, appended to The Chief Justice’s opinion, post, at 28–32, is illustrative of the variety of functions state legislatures can be called upon to exercise. For example, Art. I, §2, cl. 1, superseded by the Seventeenth Amendment, assigned an “electoral” function. See Smiley, 285 U. S., at 365. Article I, §3, cl. 2, assigns an “appointive” function. Article I, §8, cl. 17, assigns a “consenting” function, see Smiley, 285 U. S., at 366, as does Art. IV, §3, cl. 1. “[R]atifying” functions are assigned in Art. V, Amdt. 18, §3, Amdt. 20, §6, and Amdt. 22, §2. See Hawke, 253 U. S., at 229. But Art. I, §4, cl. 1, unquestionably calls for the exercise of lawmaking authority. That authority can be carried out by a representative body, but if a State so chooses, legislative authority can also be lodged in the people themselves. See infra, at 24–35.
2. The AIRC referenced §2a(c) in briefing below, see Motion to Dis­miss 8–9, and Response to Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction 12–14, in No. 12–1211 (D Ariz.), and in its motion to dismiss or affirm in this Court, see Motion to Dismiss or Affirm 28–31.