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.

[3] The Court, in a majority opinion authored by Chief Justice Melville Fuller,[4] upheld Michigan's law, and more generally gave state legislatures plenary power over how they appointed their electors.

[5][6] The ability of states to determine the selection and apportionment of their electors was later reaffirmed in another Supreme Court case, Bush v. Gore (2000).

"[8] 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.

As the Court has made clear, "[t]he legislative power is the supreme authority, except as limited by the constitution of the state."