105 Iowa L. Rev. 1319 (2020)

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Abstract

In 1849, the Supreme Court found in Luther v. Borden that the constitutional guarantee of republican state government was a political question which Congress could enforce by excluding the representatives of unrepublican state governments. Following the American Civil War, the Guarantee Clause served as a constitutional foundation of the Reconstruction Congress’s attempt to transform the former slave states into a stable, interracial democracies. Taking its inspiration from the Reconstruction Congress, this Note proposes that today’s Congress use its Guarantee Clause exclusion power by articulating a standard for exclusion to deter voter suppressive measures by state governments.