ABSTRACT
James Madison gave repeated expression to the dangers of passion and to the republican answer in the Federalist. The Constitution contained very few rights against state lawmaking; republican processes were supposed to prevent majoritarian as well as autocratic abuse. The obligation to maintain republican forms of government is the supreme law of the land and must be applied by state judges and other state officials. Lawmaking by popular vote on an initiated proposal of course bypasses the committee study, hearings, amendments, and compromises of legislative deliberation; that was and is its purpose. In states where the issue is open, courts reasonably could read the guaranty clause to bar all statewide lawmaking initiatives. State officials and state courts, however, must apply the constraints of republicanism without help from the United States Supreme Court, which held that within the federal government the clause places enforcement of the guarantee in the hands of the political branches rather than the federal courts.
