Elizabeth Jo

But yeah, nothing that rises to the level of the Utah issue.

Yeah.

I mean, it is interesting, though, because the Constitution does contemplate that the United States can grow and grow and grow.

There's no limit on it.

There's no like, and this is the last state you can have.

So it's kind of, you know, in a way, it's like an expansionist Constitution, right?

It can get as big as you want.

Yeah.

I mean, I wonder how things will go in the next couple of years or so, but we'll see.

Finally, the last section of Article 4 contains what's called the guarantee clause.

Do you want to read the guarantee clause?

All right.

So what does it mean that the federal government is supposed to guarantee that every state has a Republican form of government?

That is kind of hard to say because there's really hardly any case law on it.

Part of the reason why is because generally the courts have said the guarantee clause isn't something for courts to get involved in based on what's called the political question doctrine.

Like this is really a political issue that the political branches of the federal government should get involved in.

Right.

So, I mean, I think that's pretty clear, like we that the federal government has an obligation under this clause to prevent any state from becoming a monarchy, let's say, or a dictatorship.

You know, it's an obligation to make sure that doesn't happen.

And generally speaking, I think we can all agree that a Republican form of government means that the people govern through their elected officials.