Cite as: 531 U. S. 70 (2000)
Syllabus
Held: In light of considerable uncertainty as to the precise grounds for decision, the judgment of the Florida Supreme Court is vacated, and the case is remanded. This Court generally defers to a state court's interpretation of a state statute. But in the case of a state law applicable not only to elections to state offices, but also to the selection of Presidential electors, the state legislature is not acting solely under the authority given it by the State, but by virtue of a direct grant of authority under Art. II, § 1, cl. 2, of the United States Constitution, which requires each State to appoint its electors "in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct." Insertion of those words into that Clause, while operating as a limitation upon the State in respect of any attempt to circumscribe the legislative power, cannot be held to operate as a limitation on that power itself. McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U. S. 1, 25. Review of the opinion below reveals considerable uncertainty as to the precise grounds for the decision. See Minnesota v. National Tea Co., 309 U. S. 551, 555. Specifically, this Court is unclear both as to the extent to which the Florida Supreme Court saw the Florida Constitution as circumscribing the legislature's authority under Art. II, § 1, cl. 2, and as to the consideration the Florida court accorded to 3 U. S. C. § 5, which contains a federal-law principle that would assure finality of the State's determination if made pursuant to a state law in effect before the election. That is sufficient reason for this Court to decline at this time to review the federal questions asserted to be present. See 309 U. S., at 555. While state courts must be free to interpret their state constitutions, it is equally important that ambiguous or obscure state-court adjudications not stand as barriers to a determination by this Court of the validity of state action under the Federal Constitution. Intelligent exercise of the Court's appellate powers compels it to ask for the elimination of the obscurities and ambiguities from the opinions in such cases. Id., at 557.
772 So. 2d 1220, vacated and remanded.
Theodore B. Olson argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs were Terence P. Ross, Douglas R. Cox, Thomas G. Hungar, Mark A. Perry, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, Michael A. Carvin, Barry Richard, John F. Manning, William K. Kelley, Bradford R. Clark, George J. Terwilliger III, Timothy E. Flanigan, and Marcos D. Jiménez. Joseph P. Klock, Jr., argued the cause for Katherine Harris et al., respondents under this Court's Rule 12.6, in support of peti-
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