Page:Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Comm’n.pdf/59

20 Section 2a(c) establishes a number of default rules that govern the States’ manner of electing representatives “[u]ntil a State is redistricted in the manner provided by the law thereof.” Section 2a(c) is therefore “inapplicable unless the state legislature, and state and federal courts, have all failed to redistrict” the State. Branch v. Smith, 538 U. S. 254, 275 (2003) (plurality opinion); see id., at 298–300 (O’Connor, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). Here, the Commission has redistricted the State “in the manner provided by the law thereof.” So by its terms, Section 2a(c) does not come into play in this case.

The majority spends several pages discussing Section 2a(c), but it conspicuously declines to say that the statute actually applies to this case. The majority notes that the pre-1911 versions of Section 2a(c) applied only until “the legislature” redistricted the State, while the post-1911 versions applied only until the State is redistricted “in the manner provided by the law thereof.” The majority also describes in detail the legislative history that accompanied the 1911 amendment. But if Section 2a(c) does not apply, its legislative history is doubly irrelevant.

The majority seems to suggest that Section 2a(c) somehow indicates federal approval for the district lines that the Commission has drawn. See ante, at 23. But the statute does nothing of the sort. Section 2a(c) explains what rules apply “[u]ntil a State is redistricted”; it says nothing about what rules apply after a State is redistricted. And it certainly does not say that the State’s redistricting plan will by some alchemy become federal law. No legislative drafter remotely familiar with the English language would say that a State had to follow default