Luther v. Borden

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Luther v. Borden

Full case name:	Martin Luther v. Luther M. Borden

Citations:	48 U.S. 1; 48 U.S. 1, 7 Howard 1 (1849)

Holding

Whether a state government is a legitimate republican form as guaranteed by the Constitution is a political question to be resolved by the President and Congress.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney
Associate Justices: John McLean, James Moore Wayne, John Catron, John McKinley, Peter Vivian Daniel, Samuel Nelson, Levi Woodbury, Robert Cooper Grier

Case opinions

Majority by: Taney
Dissent by: Woodbury

Luther v. Borden, 48 U.S. 1 (1849)^[1], was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States established the political question test in controversies arising under the Guarantee Clause of Article Four of the United States Constitution (Art. IV, § 4).

Martin Luther was part of the Dorr Rebellion, an attempt to overthrow the charter government of Rhode Island, which had stymied the efforts of those who wished to broaden the voting rights of state residents. The rebellion began as a political effort but turned violent. Luther was arrested by Borden, a state official, who searched his home and allegedly damaged his property. Luther contended that the charter government was not "republican" in nature because it restricted the electorate to only the most propertied classes; because Article Four states that "the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government," Luther argued that the Supreme Court should find that Borden acted without proper authority. In doing so, the Court would necessarily find that the "Dorrite" alternative republican government was the lawful government of Rhode Island, superseding the charter government.

[edit] The Court's Decision

The Supreme Court found that it was up to the President and Congress to enforce this clause and that, as an inherently political question, it was outside the purview of the Court.

The ruling established that the "republican form of government" clause of Article Four was non-justiciable, a ruling that still holds today. However, two decades after Luther v. Borden was decided, the Fourteenth Amendment, which included the Equal Protection Clause, was added to the Constitution. Baker v. Carr, in which the Court found that the Court could examine Tennessee's apportionment of legislative districts, was based on the Equal Protection Clause, and many subsequent cases that covered much of the same ground as Luther v. Borden followed suit.

The case is considered to be the first instance of judicial restraint.^{[citation needed]}