Page:Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Comm’n.pdf/61

22 of the Clause gives Congress the power to “make or alter such Regulations.” There is a difference between making or altering election regulations prescribed by the state legislature and authorizing an entity other than the state legislature to prescribe election regulations. In essence, the majority’s proposed reading permits Congress to use the second part of the Elections Clause to nullify the first. Yet this Court has expressly held that “Congress ha[s] no power to alter Article I, section 4 [the Elections Clause].” Smiley, 285 U. S., at 372; see also Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U. S. 417 (1998) (Congress may not circumvent Article I constraints on its lawmaking power); Chadha, 462 U. S. 919 (same).

Second, the majority’s interpretation of Section 2a(c) would create a serious delegation problem. As a general matter, Congress may pass statutes that delegate some discretion to those who administer the laws. It is a well-accepted principle, however, that Congress may not delegate authority to one actor when the Constitution vests that authority in another actor. See Whitman v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 531 U. S. 457, 472 (2001). The majority’s reading of Section 2a(c) contradicts that rule by allowing Congress to delegate federal redistricting authority to a state entity other than the one in which the Elections Clause vests that authority: “the Legislature.”

Third, the majority’s interpretation conflicts with our most recent Elections Clause precedent, Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Ariz., Inc., 570 U. S. 1 (2013). There we explained that when Congress legislates under the Elections Clause, it “necessarily displaces some element of a pre-existing legal regime erected by the States.” Id., at ___ (slip op., at 11). That is so because “the power the Elections Clause confers [on Congress] is none other than the power to pre-empt.” Id., at ___–___, (slip op., at 11–12). Put differently, “all action under the Elections Clause displaces some element of a pre-existing state regulatory