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Is A Provision For The Initiative And Referendum Inconsistent With The Constitution Of The United States?, W. A. Coutts

Michigan Law Review

We are told today that the Constitution of the United States forbids the adoption of the Initiative and the Referendum, as these involve such purely democratic principles as to be inconsistent with the republican form of government guaranteed by the fourth section of the fourth article of the Federal Constitution. The special interests that are opposed to the Initiative tell us that we must find some other cure for the evils at which it aims; that the Initiative is a purely democratic principle and, as such, it is forbidden by the fourth section of the fourth article of the Federal …