McPherson v. Blacker
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''McPherson v. Blacker'', 146 U.S. 1 (1892), was a
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
case decided on October 17, 1892. The case concerned a law passed in
Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
which divided the state into separate
congressional district Congressional districts, also known as electoral districts and legislative districts, electorates, or wards in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional bod ...
s and awarded one of the state's electoral votes to the winner of each district. The suit was filed by several of these electors chosen in the 1892 election, including William McPherson, against Robert R. Blacker, the
Secretary of State of Michigan The Michigan Department of State is administered by the Secretary of State, who is elected on a partisan ballot for a term of four years in gubernatorial elections. The Secretary of State is the third-highest official in the State of Michigan. A ...
. It was the first Supreme Court case to consider whether certain methods of states' appointments of their electors were constitutional. The Court, in a majority opinion authored by Chief Justice
Melville Fuller Melville Weston Fuller (February 11, 1833 – July 4, 1910) was an American politician, attorney, and jurist who served as the eighth chief justice of the United States from 1888 until his death in 1910. Staunch conservatism marked his ...
, upheld Michigan's law, and more generally gave state legislatures
plenary power A plenary power or plenary authority is a complete and absolute power to take action on a particular issue, with no limitations. It is derived from the Latin term ''plenus'' ("full"). United States In United States constitutional law, plenary p ...
over how they appointed their electors. The Court held that
Article Two of the United States Constitution Article Two of the United States Constitution establishes the executive branch of the federal government, which carries out and enforces federal laws. Article Two vests the power of the executive branch in the office of the president of the Unite ...
also constrains the ability of each state to limit the ability of its state legislators to decide how to appoint their electors.


Impact in ''Bush v. Gore'' (2000)

The ability of states to determine the selection and apportionment of their electors was later reaffirmed in another Supreme Court case, ''
Bush v. Gore ''Bush v. Gore'', 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. On December 8, th ...
'' (2000). ''McPherson'' was also cited in ''Bush v. Gore'' by both
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
and by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in his
concurring opinion In law, a concurring opinion is in certain legal systems a written opinion by one or more judges of a court which agrees with the decision made by the majority of the court, but states different (or additional) reasons as the basis for their deci ...
. Rehnquist admonished that "in a Presidential election the clearly expressed intent of the legislature must prevail."


Impact in 2020 post-election legal disputes

The plenary power of State legislatures to appoint electors, as affirmed in ''McPherson'', and as originally given in Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, was suggested as a means to settle the 2020 Presidential election. This power, it was also argued, has usually been delegated to the people's vote, but the power can be recovered if the existence of fraud can be proven and/or if the legislatures' election statutes have been violated or circumvented, rendering the election illegal. On December 11, 2020, the Supreme Court denied the state of Texas's motion to file a bill of complaint against four states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, that had awarded their electoral votes to
President-elect An ''officer-elect'' is a person who has been elected to a position but has not yet been installed. Notably, a president who has been elected but not yet installed would be referred to as a ''president-elect'' (e.g. president-elect of the Unit ...
Joe Biden. On December 5, Republican Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives Rusty Bowers pointed out, ". . . it is true that the Arizona Legislature could alter the method of appointing electors prospectively. But it cannot undo the election of electors whom the voters already voted for . . . the law does not authorize the Legislature to reverse the results of an election . . . I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election." The
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
said in response to the Texas suit, :Nothing in the Electors Clause permits a state legislature to enact a law “in defiance of provisions of tsState’s constitution.” . . . When this Court said that state legislatures “possess[] plenary authority,” it was referring to a legislature’s authority to choose a particular “manner” for selecting presidential electors: “by joint ballot,” or by “concurrence of the two houses,” or by “popular vote,” whether by “general ticket” or by congressional “districts.” ''McPherson v. Blacker'', 146 U.S. 1, 25 (1892). As the Court has made clear, “ e legislative power is the supreme authority, except as limited by the constitution of the state.” ''Ibid.'' :Taking a quote from ''McPherson'' out of context, Texas suggests that this plenary power permits a state legislature to nullify the will of the electorate and select its own electors . . . . There is no support in ''McPherson'' for such an extraordinarily antidemocratic proposition."


References


External links

* {{USElectionCourt United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Fuller Court United States elections case law 1892 in United States case law United States Electoral College