272
Opinion of the Court
also § 2254(d)(1) ("clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States"); Mar-bury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 177 (1803) (it is "the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is").
We think, therefore, that while § 2c assuredly envisions legislative action, it also embraces action by state and federal courts when the prescribed legislative action has not been forthcoming. We might note that giving "by law" its less common meaning would cause the immediately following clause of § 2c ("and Representatives shall be elected only from districts so established" (emphasis added)) to exclude all courts from redistricting, including even state courts acting pursuant to state legislative authorization in the event of legislative default. It is hard to see what plausible congressional purpose this would serve. When, as here, the situation (a decrease in the number of Representatives, all of whom were formerly elected from single-member districts) enables courts to prescribe at-large elections under paragraph (5) of § 2a(c) (assuming that section subsists, see infra, at 273), it can be said that there is a constitutional fallback. But what would occur if the situation called for application of paragraphs (1) to (4) of § 2a(c), none of which is constitutionally enforceable when (as is usual) the decennial census has shown a proscribed degree of disparity in the voting population of the established districts? The absolute prohibition of § 2c ("Representatives shall be elected only from [single-member] districts [legislatively] established") would be subject to no exception, and courts would (despite Baker v. Carr) be congressionally forbidden to act when the state legislature has not redistricted. Only when it is utterly unavoidable should we interpret a statute to require an unconstitutional result—and that is far from the situation here.
In sum, § 2c is as readily enforced by courts as it is by state legislatures, and is just as binding on courts—federal or state—as it is on legislatures.
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