Elizabeth Jo

But that's a pretty broad statement.

So I think what's not clear and maybe we'll never have a really definitive answer on is like, is there a specific form of Republican government that is constitutionally required?

So, for instance, like how far could a state go in restricting who's allowed to vote within the state?

At some point, would that be no longer a Republican form of government?

Because after all, if we're going to go back to the founding, the founders were perfectly comfortable restricting the right to vote to themselves and nobody else.

So that's kind of a question left up in the air.

Right.

So maybe the Republican form of government guarantee is a little bit meaningless in the sense that it doesn't provide strong protections against attacks on voting rights.

And maybe the threat of having a totalitarian state government is pretty remote, maybe.

But, you know, it's a pretty broad set of outlines about what is a guarantee of a Republican form of government.

And then there is the protection clause of Article 4.

The federal government shall protect each of them, the states, against invasion.

So this is pretty interesting because this part of Article 4 requires, that's the shall, right?

Requires the federal government to protect each state from invasion and from domestic violence if the state asks for it.

So the protection clause actually works together with another part of the Constitution, which is found in Article 1.

That's the invasion clause.

In the invasion clause of Article 1, the states are not actually allowed to act in their own defense unless there's like a real emergency, unless they are, as the Constitution says, actually invaded.

So the Constitution sets up a scheme where the federal government is actually the one responsible for the collective security of the states.

So this is the part where you're really supposed to ask the federal government for help or the federal government is supposed to help you, the states.

Not a commonly used doctrine, unless you are Texas.