Michael Merrifield, MarcyMorrison AND John Morse

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The Framers very deliberately wrote the Constitution to limit the type of government the states could adopt. They understood that the structure of government would be critical in balancing personal freedom and the rights of individuals with the broader needs of the society to pursue and achieve shared and common purposes and to establish order and public safety.

The Constitution in Article IV section 4 provides that states must have “a Republican Form of Government.” The Framers were of course not talking about a political party, but about a political philosophy, and guaranteeing that each state would — like the nation — be a republic.

Each state government must be republican in form. A state could not be a monarchy and crown a king. Presumably, a state could not decide to do without a separate judicial branch. Similarly, as the Supreme Court has found, the states must establish legislatures — instruments of a representative democracy, which the Framers were at pains to distinguish from direct democracy.

State legislatures must have the powers needed to meet their responsibilities; they cannot be toothless. A legislature with depleted powers would be inconsistent with a republican form of government. The state legislatures therefore must be authorized to exercise certain key powers, such as the authority to tax.

This gets us to the TABOR amendment and a pending legal challenge to its the constitutionality. We have joined that lawsuit because we believe TABOR deprives the Colorado General Assembly of a basic legislative function. For this reason, TABOR violates the Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution, in which “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government . . . .”

In Federalist No. 10, James Madison, one of the principal drafters of the Constitution, explained why the Constitution established a republic. In essence, Madison contrasts what he calls “popular” or direct democracy with the representative democracy that he believes is the essential aspect and virtue of a republic.

He explains at length why freedom and liberty and sound policy are best assured by a government constituted of representative institutions and why direct democracy is fraught with problems. To use current language, Madison emphasized the value of having a small group of people, selected by their fellow citizens, who would be dedicated to deliberating and resolving the issues of the day.

In other words, the Constitution guarantees that the government of each state should be one of representative institutions — i.e., state legislatures — composed of men (and thankfully now women, too) who work for the rest of us to make decisions about public business. And, if we do not approve of the way they make those decisions, we may elect others to replace them.

This does not mean there is not plenty of room for the citizen initiative power that was added to the Colorado Constitution in 1910. It simply means that the initiative power cannot be used to undermine the essence of a Republican Form of Government and the institutions of representative democracy.

This is the reason we have joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in May to challenge the constitutionality of TABOR. We did so because TABOR removed powers and responsibilities from the Colorado General Assembly necessary for it to function and fulfill the state’s obligation to maintain a republican form of government.

We are not questioning the right to use the citizens’ initiative power in general — only its specific use in adopting TABOR. We believe this case is about fundamental principles of American government — principles we

should always bear in mind and which we took an oath to uphold — principles especially timely to consider as we approach the 235th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.

Merrifield and Morrison are former members of the Colorado House of Representatives; Morse is majority leader of the Colorado Senate.

Surveillance footage of a man whom El Paso County deputies suspect robbed a Big R on Tuesday evening. Two men wearing similar outfits robbed a credit union on Wednesday afternoon. Photo by Courtesy of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office