# Guarantee Clause **Status: stub — expand.** Article IV, § 4 — "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive when the Legislature cannot be convened, against domestic Violence." Largely dormant as a source of judicial relief. *Luther v. Borden* (1849) treated Guarantee Clause claims as political questions for Congress and the President, and *Pacific States Telephone v. Oregon* (1912) reaffirmed it against a challenge to the initiative and referendum. Scholars have periodically argued it could reach extreme gerrymanders or state democratic backsliding; courts have not taken it up. The second half matters more in practice. The "domestic Violence" provision conditions federal protection on a state's *request* — the constitutional backdrop against which the [[Insurrection Act]] and 10 U.S.C. § 12406 operate as statutory routes to federal force **without** state consent. ## See also - [[Insurrection Act]] · [[National Guard]] · [[Trump v. Illinois]] - [[Federalism Powers Crosswalk]]