A
U.S. state is any one of 50
federated states of the
United States of America that share
sovereignty with the
federal government (four states use the official title of
commonwealth rather than
state). Because of this shared sovereignty, an
American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of
domicile. However,
state citizenship is very flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states (with the exception of convicts on
parole).
The
United States Constitution allocates power between the two levels of government. By ratifying the Constitution, each state transferred certain, but
limited,
sovereign powers to the
federal government. Under the
Tenth Amendment, all powers not delegated to the U.S. government nor prohibited to the states are retained by the
states, or the
people. Historically, the tasks of public safety (in the sense of controlling
crime), public education, public health, transportation, and
infrastructure in general have been considered primarily state responsibilities, although all of these now have significant federal funding and regulation as well.
Over time, the Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and
incorporation, with the federal government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a continuing debate over "
states' rights", which concerns the extent and nature of the states' powers and sovereignty in relation to that of the federal government and their power over individuals.
List of states
The following sortable table lists each of the 50 states of the
United States with the following information:
United States Census Bureau estimates of state population for 2009 will be available about December 31, 2009. Census Bureau estimates of city population for 2009 will be available about July 31, 2010.
Federal power
Since the 1930s, the
Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted the
Commerce Clause of the
Constitution of the United States in an expansive way that has dramatically expanded the scope of
federal power. For example, Congress can regulate railway traffic across state lines, but it may also regulate rail traffic solely within a state, based on the theory that wholly intrastate traffic can still have an impact on interstate commerce.
Another source of Congressional power is its "spending power"—the ability of Congress to impose uniform taxes across the nation and then distribute the resulting revenue back to the states (subject to conditions set by Congress). A classic example of this is the system of "federal-aid highways", which includes the
Interstate Highway System. The system is mandated and largely funded by the federal government, but also serves the interests of the states. By threatening to withhold
federal highway funds, Congress has been able to pressure state legislatures to pass a variety of laws. Although some object that this infringes on states' rights, the
Supreme Court has upheld the practice as a permissible use of the Constitution's Spending Clause.
State governments
States are free to organize their
state governments any way they like, as long as they conform to the sole requirement of the U.S. Constitution that they have "a
Republican Form of Government". In practice, each state has adopted a three branch
system of government generally along the same lines as that of the federal government—though this is not a requirement.
Despite the fact that each state has chosen to follow the federal model, there are significant differences in some states. One of the most notable is that of the
unicameral Nebraska Legislature, which, unlike the legislatures of the other 49 states, has only one house. While there is only one federal president, who then selects a Cabinet responsible to him, most states have a plural executive, with members of the
executive branch elected directly by the people and serving as equal members of the state cabinet alongside the governor. And only a few states choose to have their judicial branch leaders—their judges on the state's courts—serve for life terms.
A key difference between states is that many rural states have
part-time legislatures, while the states with the highest populations tend to have
full-time legislatures. Texas, the second largest state in population, is a notable exception to this: excepting special sessions, the
Texas Legislature is limited by law to 140 calendar days out of every two years. In
Baker v. Carr, the U.S. Supreme Court held that all states are required to have legislative districts which are proportional in terms of population.
States can also organize their judicial systems differently from the
federal judiciary, as long as they protect the constitutional right of their citizens to procedural
due process. See
state court and
state supreme court for more information. Most have a trial level court, generally called a
District Court or
Superior Court, a first-level
appellate court, generally called a Court of Appeal (or Appeals), and a Supreme Court. However, Oklahoma and Texas have separate highest courts for criminal appeals. New York state is notorious for its unusual terminology, in that the trial court is called the Supreme Court. Appeals are then taken to the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, and from there to the Court of Appeals. Most states base their legal system on English
common law (with substantial indigenous changes and incorporation of certain civil law innovations), with the notable exception of Louisiana, which draws large parts of its legal system from French
civil law.
Relationships among the states
Under
Article IV of the Constitution, which outlines the relationship between the states, the
United States Congress has the power to admit new states to the union. The states are required to give "
full faith and credit" to the acts of each other's legislatures and courts, which is generally held to include the recognition of legal contracts, marriages, criminal judgments, and—at the time—slave status. States are prohibited from discriminating against citizens of other states with respect to their
basic rights, under the
Privileges and Immunities Clause. The states are guaranteed military and
civil defense by the federal government, which is also required to ensure that the government of each state remains a republic.
Admission of states into the union
The order in which the original 13 states ratified the constitution, then the order in which the others were admitted to the union.
Since the establishment of the United States, the number of states has expanded from 13 to 50.
The Constitution is rather laconic on the process by which new states can be added, noting only that "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union", and forbidding a new state to be created out of the territory of an existing state or the merging of two or more states as one without the consent of both Congress and all the state legislatures involved.
In practice, nearly all states admitted to the union after the original thirteen have been formed from
U.S. territories (that is, land under the sovereignty of the United States federal government but not part of any state) that were
organized (given a measure of
self-rule by Congress). Generally speaking, the organized government of a territory made known the sentiment of its population in favor of statehood; Congress then directed that government to organize a
constitutional convention to write a state constitution. Upon acceptance of that Constitution, Congress then admitted that territory as a state. The broad outlines in this process were established by the
Northwest Ordinance, which predated the ratification of the Constitution.
However, Congress has ultimate authority over the admission of new states, and is not bound to follow this procedure. A few U.S. states (outside of the original 13) that were never organized territories of the federal government have been admitted:
- Kentucky, a part of Virginia until its admission in 1792
- Texas, a recognized independent republic until its admission in 1845
Congress is also under no obligation to admit states even in those areas whose population expresses a desire for statehood. For instance, the Republic of Texas requested annexation to the United States in 1836, but fears about the conflict with Mexico that would result delayed admission for nine years. The
Utah Territory was denied admission to the union as a state for decades because of discomfort with
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' dominance in the territory, its desire to name the region
Deseret due to its ties to
Mormonism, and particularly with the
Mormons' then-practice of
polygamy. Once established, state borders have been largely stable. There have been exceptions, such as the cession by Maryland and Virginia of land to create the
District of Columbia (Virginia's portion was later
returned) and the creation of states from other states, including the creation of Kentucky and West Virginia from Virginia, Maine from Massachusetts, and Tennessee from North Carolina.
Possible new states
Today, there are very few U.S. territories left that might potentially become new states. The most likely candidate may be
Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been under U.S. sovereignty for over a century, and Puerto Ricans have been
U.S. citizens since 1917. Puerto Rico currently has limited representation in the
U.S. Congress in the form of a
Resident Commissioner, a nonvoting delegate.
President
George H. W. Bush issued a memorandum on November 30, 1992 to heads of executive departments and agencies establishing the current administrative relationship between the federal government and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. This memorandum directs all federal departments, agencies, and officials to treat Puerto Rico administratively as if it were a state, insofar as doing so would not disrupt federal programs or operations.
The commonwealth's government has organized several
referendums on the question of status over the past several decades, though Congress has not recognized these as binding; all shown resulted in narrow victories for the
status quo over statehood, with independence supported by only a small number of voters. On December 23, 2000, President
Bill Clinton signed executive Order 13183, which established the
President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status and the rules for its membership. Section 4 of executive Order 13183 (as amended by executive Order 13319) directs the task force to "report on its actions to the President ... on progress made in the determination of Puerto Rico’s ultimate status".
President
George W. Bush signed an additional amendment to Executive Order 13183 on December 3, 2003, which established the current co-chairs and instructed the task force to issue reports as needed, but no less than once every two years. In December 2005, the presidential task force proposed a new set of referendums on the issue; if Congress votes in line with the task force's recommendation, it would pave the way for the first congressionally mandated votes on status in the island, and (potentially) statehood by 2010. The task force's December 2007 status report reiterated and confirmed the proposals made in 2005.
The intention of the
Founding Fathers was that the United States capital should be at a neutral site, not giving favor to any existing state; as a result, the
District of Columbia was created in 1800 to serve as the
seat of government. The inhabitants of the District do not have
full representation in Congress or a sovereign elected government (they were allotted presidential electors by the
23rd amendment, and have a
non-voting delegate in
Congress). Some residents of the District support
statehood of some form for that jurisdiction—either statehood for the whole district or for the inhabited part, with the remainder remaining under
federal jurisdiction. While statehood is always a live
political question in the District, the prospects for any movement in that direction in the immediate future seem dim. Instead, an emphasis on continuing
home rule in the District while also giving the District a vote in Congress is gaining support.
Constitutionally, a state may only be divided into more states with the approval of both Congress and of the state's legislature, as was the case when Maine was split off from Massachusetts. When
Texas was admitted to the union in 1845, it was much larger than any other state and was specifically granted the right to divide itself into as many as five separate states. However, according to Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, "New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress."
Unrecognized states
- The State of Franklin existed for four years not long after the end of the American Revolution, but was never recognized by the union, which ultimately recognized North Carolina's claim of sovereignty over the area. A majority of the states were willing to recognize Franklin, but the number of states in favor fell short of the two-thirds majority required to admit a territory to statehood under the Articles of Confederation. The territory comprising Franklin later became part of the state of Tennessee.
- * In 1915, a second State of Jefferson was proposed for northern third of Texas but failed to obtain majority approval by Congress.
- * In 1941, a third State of Jefferson was proposed in the mostly rural area of southern Oregon and northern California, but was cancelled as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This proposal has been raised several times since.
- * State of Lincoln is another state that has been proposed multiple times. It generally consists of the eastern portion of Washington state and the panhandle or northern portion of Idaho. It was originally proposed by Idaho in 1864 to include just the panhandle of Idaho, and again in 1901 to include eastern Washington. Proposals have come up in 1996, 1999, and 2005.
- * Lincoln is also the name of a failed state proposal after the U.S. Civil War in 1869. The southwestern section of Texas was proposed to Congress during the Reconstruction period of the federal government after the Civil War.
- * Several prominent legislators including local politician Dominic Jacobetti formally attempted this legislation in the 1970s, with no success. As a state, it would have, by far, the smallest population; its 320,000 residents would represent only 60% of Wyoming's population, and less than 50% of Alaska's. It would rank 40th in land area, larger than Maryland.
Secession
The Constitution is silent on the issue of the
secession of a state from the union. The Articles of Confederation had stated that the earlier union of the colonies "shall be perpetual". In 1860 and 1861, eleven southern states seceded, but eventually came back into the Union during the
Reconstruction era. Following the
War, the federal
judicial system, in the case of
Texas v. White, held that the
preamble to the Constitution, which states that the Constitution was intended to "form a more perfect union," meant states did not have a right to secede. The court did allow some possibility of the divisibility "through revolution, or through consent of the States."
States called commonwealths
Four of the states bear the formal title of
commonwealth: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In these cases, this is merely a historically based name and has no legal effect. Somewhat confusingly, two U.S. territories —
Puerto Rico and the
Northern Marianas — are also referred to as
commonwealths, and do have a
legal status different from the states (both are
unincorporated territories).
Origin of states' names
State names speak to the circumstances of their creation. See the lists of
U.S. state name etymologies and
U.S. county name etymologies.
Grouping of the states in regions
States may be grouped in regions; there are endless variations and possible groupings, as most states are not defined by obvious geographic or cultural borders. For further discussion of regions of the U.S., see the
list of regions of the United States.
State lists
See also
