142
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
for the state itself.").2 Article II does not call for the scrutiny undertaken by this Court.
The extraordinary setting of this case has obscured the ordinary principle that dictates its proper resolution: Federal courts defer to a state high court's interpretations of the State's own law. This principle reflects the core of federalism, on which all agree. "The Framers split the atom of sovereignty. It was the genius of their idea that our citizens would have two political capacities, one state and one federal, each protected from incursion by the other." Saenz v. Roe, 526 U. S. 489, 504, n. 17 (1999) (citing U. S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U. S. 779, 838 (1995) (Kennedy, J., concurring)). The Chief Justice's solicitude for the Florida Legislature comes at the expense of the more fundamental solicitude we owe to the legislature's sovereign. U. S. Const., Art. II, § 1, cl. 2 ("Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct," the electors for President and Vice President (emphasis added)); ante, at 123-124 (Stevens, J., dissenting).3 Were the other Members of this Court as mindful as they generally are of our system of dual
2 Even in the rare case in which a State's "manner" of making and construing laws might implicate a structural constraint, Congress, not this Court, is likely the proper governmental entity to enforce that constraint. See U. S. Const., Amdt. 12; 3 U. S. C. §§ 1-15; cf. Ohio ex rel. Davis v. Hildebrant, 241 U. S. 565, 569 (1916) (treating as a nonjusticiable political question whether use of a referendum to override a congressional districting plan enacted by the state legislature violates Art. I, § 4); Luther v. Borden, 7 How. 1, 42 (1849).
3 "[B]ecause the Framers recognized that state power and identity were essential parts of the federal balance, see The Federalist No. 39, the Constitution is solicitous of the prerogatives of the States, even in an otherwise sovereign federal province. The Constitution . . . grants States certain powers over the times, places, and manner of federal elections (subject to congressional revision), Art. I, § 4, cl. 1 . . . , and allows States to appoint electors for the President, Art. II, § 1, cl. 2." U. S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U. S. 779, 841-842 (1995) (Kennedy, J., concurring).
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