The petition currently in circulation to force a statewide vote on the National Popular Vote bill would almost certainly be ruled unconstitutional by the current Supreme Court.
Article II, section 1 of the U.S. Constitution states, \u201cEach State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors\u2026\u201d to the Electoral College. Similar language in the Election Clause in Article I of the Constitution gives state legislatures the power to determine the manner of electing members of Congress.
In 2015, Chief Justice Roberts wrote a scathing dissenting opinion when a 5-4 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Arizona voters could use the initiative process to bypass the state legislature and establish an independent commission to create congressional districts.
Roberts said, \u201cThe Court today performs \u2026 a magic trick with the Elections Clause. That Clause vests congressional redistricting authority in \u2018the Legislature\u2019 of each state. An Arizona ballot initiative transferred that authority from \u2018the Legislature\u2019 to an \u2018Independent Redistricting Commission.\u2019 The majority approves this deliberate constitutional evasion by \u2026 revising \u2018the Legislature\u2019 to mean \u2018the people.\u2019\u201d
Now that Justice Kennedy has retired, Chief Justice Robert\u2019s view that \u201clegislature\u201d means \u201clegislature\u201d almost certainly represents a majority on the new Supreme Court.
Sylvia Bernstein,
Boulder<\/p>\n