McPherson v. Blacker

Prior to 1891, Michigan had appointed the state’s entire slate of presidential electors based on the winner of the popular vote in the state. However, in 1891, the Democratic-controlled Michigan state legislature passed a law that authorized each congressional district in the state to vote for different sets of presidential electors. Republican candidates had traditionally won the popular vote in Michigan, so the new law benefited Democrats in the state by ensuring the state would likely begin electing some Democratic electors. William McPherson (plaintiff), a Republican nominee for presidential elector in the 1892 presidential election, brought an action against Robert Blacker (defendant), Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, seeking to have the 1891 law declared void. McPherson asserted that the law conflicted with Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, which gave states the authority to appoint a quantity of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which that state was entitled in the United States Congress. McPherson asserted that Michigan’s law inappropriately allowed for the appointment of electors by individual districts within the state, rather than by the state as a unit. After the Michigan Supreme Court rejected the challenge to the law, the United States Supreme Court considered the case.