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Contending that instead of protecting individual rights against state governments, the Guarantee Clause was designed to protect the rights of states in their sovereign governmental capacities against the federal government.
Arguing that the Framers of the Guarantee Clause were concerned broadly with protecting individual states from threats to their existence, stability, and parity rather than merely concerning state autonomy from the federal government.
Arguing, based largely on the Federalist Papers, that the ratifying public at the Founding understood “Republican Form of Government” from the Guarantee Clause to mean popular sovereignty.
Arguing that “Republican Form of Government” referenced by the Guarantee Clause is defined by the following mandatory elements: majority rule, preclusion of monarchy, and rule of law.
Concluding, based on the Federalist Papers, eighteenth century dictionaries, and an early judicial opinion by James Wilson, that “Republican Form of Government” in the Guarantee Clause referred to popular sovereignty and majority rule.
Deborah J. Merritt, The Guarantee Clause and State Autonomy: Federalism for the Third Century, 88 Colum. L. Rev. 1 (1988).
Arguing that the Guarantee Clause 1) assures the citizens of each state that they shall be governed by popular control, thus precluding state governments from establishing any monarchal or dictatorial structures; and 2) prevents the federal government from intruding upon state governments so long as they are abiding by republican principles.
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