U.S. state | |
---|---|
Category | Federated state |
Location | United States |
Number | 50 |
Government | State government |
A U.S. state is any one of 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile.[1] Four states use the official title of commonwealth rather than state.[2] State citizenship is 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 these two levels of government. By ratifying the Constitution, the people transferred certain limited sovereign powers to the federal government from their states. 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 have generally been considered primarily state responsibilities, although all of these now have significant federal funding and regulation as well (based largely upon the Commerce Clause, the Taxing and Spending Clause, and the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution).
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 the federal government as well as the rights of individual persons.
Congress may admit new states on an equal footing with existing ones; however, it has not done so since 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of whether states have the power to unilaterally leave, or secede from, the Union, but the Supreme Court has ruled[3][4] secession to be unconstitutional, a position driven in part by the outcome of the American Civil War.
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The following sortable table lists each of the 50 states of the United States with the following information:
Name | IPA | USPS | Flag | Date | Population (2009[update][8]) | Capital | Most populous city |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Alabama | /ˌæləˈbæmə/ | AL | December 14, 1819 | 4,708,708 | Montgomery | Birmingham | |
Alaska | /əˈlæskə/ | AK | January 3, 1959 | 698,473 | Juneau | Anchorage | |
Arizona | /ˌær |
AZ | February 14, 1912 | 6,595,778 | Phoenix | Phoenix | |
Arkansas | /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ | AR | June 15, 1836 | 2,889,450 | Little Rock | Little Rock | |
California | /ˌkæl |
CA | September 9, 1850 | 36,961,664 | Sacramento | Los Angeles | |
Colorado | /ˌkɒləˈrædoʊ/ | CO | August 1, 1876 | 5,024,748 | Denver | Denver | |
Connecticut | /kəˈnɛt |
CT | January 9, 1788 | 3,518,288 | Hartford | Bridgeport[9] | |
Delaware | /ˈdɛləwɛər/ | DE | December 7, 1787 | 885,122 | Dover | Wilmington | |
Florida | /ˈflɒr |
FL | March 3, 1845 | 18,537,969 | Tallahassee | Jacksonville[10] | |
Georgia | /ˈdʒɔrdʒə/ | GA | January 2, 1788 | 9,829,211 | Atlanta | Atlanta | |
Hawaii | /həˈwaɪ.iː/ | HI | August 21, 1959 | 1,295,178 | Honolulu | Honolulu | |
Idaho | /ˈaɪdəhoʊ/ | ID | July 3, 1890 | 1,545,801 | Boise | Boise | |
Illinois | /ɪl |
IL | December 3, 1818 | 12,910,409 | Springfield | Chicago | |
Indiana | /ˌɪndiˈænə/ | IN | December 11, 1816 | 6,423,113 | Indianapolis | Indianapolis | |
Iowa | /ˈaɪ.ɵwə/ | IA | December 28, 1846 | 3,007,856 | Des Moines | Des Moines | |
Kansas | /ˈkænzəs/ | KS | January 29, 1861 | 2,818,747 | Topeka | Wichita | |
Kentucky[11] | /k |
KY | June 1, 1792 | 4,314,113 | Frankfort | Louisville | |
Louisiana | /luːˌiːziˈænə/ | LA | April 30, 1812 | 4,492,076 | Baton Rouge | New Orleans | |
Maine | /ˈmeɪn/ | ME | March 15, 1820 | 1,318,301 | Augusta | Portland | |
Maryland | /ˈmɛrələnd/ | MD | April 28, 1788 | 5,699,478 | Annapolis | Baltimore[12] | |
Massachusetts[11] | /ˌmæsəˈtʃuːs |
MA | February 6, 1788 | 6,593,587 | Boston | Boston | |
Michigan | /ˈmɪʃ |
MI | January 26, 1837 | 9,969,727 | Lansing | Detroit | |
Minnesota | /ˌmɪn |
MN | May 11, 1858 | 5,266,214 | Saint Paul | Minneapolis | |
Mississippi | /ˌmɪs |
MS | December 10, 1817 | 2,951,996 | Jackson | Jackson | |
Missouri | /m |
MO | August 10, 1821 | 5,987,580 | Jefferson City | Kansas City[13] | |
Montana | /mɒnˈtænə/ | MT | November 8, 1889 | 974,989 | Helena | Billings | |
Nebraska | /nəˈbræskə/ | NE | March 1, 1867 | 1,796,619 | Lincoln | Omaha | |
Nevada | /nəˈvædə/ | NV | October 31, 1864 | 2,643,085 | Carson City | Las Vegas | |
New Hampshire | /nuː ˈhæmpʃər/ | NH | June 21, 1788 | 1,324,575 | Concord | Manchester[14] | |
New Jersey | /nuː ˈdʒɜrzi/ | NJ | December 18, 1787 | 8,707,739 | Trenton | Newark[15] | |
New Mexico | /nuː ˈmɛks |
NM | January 6, 1912 | 2,009,671 | Santa Fe | Albuquerque | |
New York | /nuː ˈjɔrk/ | NY | July 26, 1788 | 19,541,453 | Albany | New York City[16] | |
North Carolina | /ˌnɔrθ kærəˈlaɪnə/ | NC | November 21, 1789 | 9,380,884 | Raleigh | Charlotte | |
North Dakota | /ˌnɔrθ dəˈkoʊtə/ | ND | November 2, 1889 | 646,844 | Bismarck | Fargo | |
Ohio | /ɵˈhaɪ.oʊ/ | OH | March 1, 1803 | 11,542,645 | Columbus | Columbus[17] | |
Oklahoma | /ˌoʊkləˈhoʊmə/ | OK | November 16, 1907 | 3,687,050 | Oklahoma City | Oklahoma City | |
Oregon | /ˈɒr |
OR | February 14, 1859 | 3,825,657 | Salem | Portland | |
Pennsylvania[11] | /ˌpɛns |
PA | December 12, 1787 | 12,604,767 | Harrisburg | Philadelphia | |
Rhode Island[18] | /rɵd ˈaɪlənd/ | RI | May 29, 1790 | 1,053,209 | Providence | Providence | |
South Carolina | /ˌsaʊθ kærəˈlaɪnə/ | SC | May 23, 1788 | 4,561,242 | Columbia | Columbia[19] | |
South Dakota | /ˌsaʊθ dəˈkoʊtə/ | SD | November 2, 1889 | 812,383 | Pierre | Sioux Falls | |
Tennessee | /ˌtɛn |
TN | June 1, 1796 | 6,296,254 | Nashville | Memphis[20] | |
Texas | /ˈtɛksəs/ | TX | December 29, 1845 | 24,782,302 | Austin | Houston[21] | |
Utah | /ˈjuːtɔː/ | UT | January 4, 1896 | 2,784,572 | Salt Lake City | Salt Lake City | |
Vermont | /vərˈmɒnt/ | VT | March 4, 1791 | 621,760 | Montpelier | Burlington | |
Virginia[11] | /vərˈdʒɪnjə/ | VA | June 25, 1788 | 7,882,590 | Richmond | Virginia Beach[22] | |
Washington | /ˈwɒʃɪŋtən/ | WA | November 11, 1889 | 6,664,195 | Olympia | Seattle | |
West Virginia | /ˌwɛst vərˈdʒɪnjə/ | WV | June 20, 1863 | 1,819,777 | Charleston | Charleston | |
Wisconsin | /wɪsˈkɒns |
WI | May 29, 1848 | 5,654,774 | Madison | Milwaukee | |
Wyoming | /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ | WY | July 10, 1890 | 544,270 | Cheyenne | Cheyenne |
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.
States are free to organize their individual governments any way they like, so long as they conform to the sole requirement of the U.S. Constitution that they have "a Republican Form of Government". (This means that each State government must be a Republic.) In practice, each State has adopted a three-branch system of government (with legislative, executive, and judiciary branches) generally along the same lines as that of the Federal government — though this is not a requirement.
Despite the fact that every state has chosen to follow the Federal model of government, there are significant differences in some states.
While there is only one Federal president, who then selects his own Cabinet responsible to him, most states have a "plural executive", in which various members of the executive branch are elected directly by the people. Thus, they serve as members of the executive branch who are not beholden to the State Governor and cannot be dismissed by him or her.
One of the most notable is that of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature, which, unlike the legislatures of the other 49 states, has only one body in it. Also, just few states choose to have their leaders of the judicial branch - their judges on the state's courts serve for life terms. Most of the state judges, including the justices on the highest court in the state, normally called "supreme" , are either elected or appointed for terms of a limited number of years, such as five years. Then, they can be re-elected or reappointed if their performance has been judged to be satisfactory.
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.
In 2010 the largest single item in the budget of most states was the public education system.[23]
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 before 1865 — slavery 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.
Four states use the official name of commonwealth, rather than state.[24] However, this is merely a paper distinction, and the U.S. Constitution uniformly refers to all of them as "States", such as in Article One, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution, concerning the U.S. House of Representatives, in which Representatives are to be elected by the people of the "States". Furthermore, Article One, Section 3, Clause 1, concerning the U.S. Senate, allocates to each "State" two Senators. However, each of the four above-mentioned "Commonwealths" counts as a State.
Since the establishment of the United States, the number of states has expanded from 13 to 50. The U.S. Constitution is rather laconic on the process by which new states could 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 into one without the consent of both Congress and all the state legislatures involved.
In practice, most of the states admitted to the union after the original thirteen have been formed from Territories of the United States (that is, land under the sovereignty of the Federal government but not part of any state) that were organized (given a measure of self-rule by the Congress). The exceptions to this process have included three states that were carved out of the land of their original state, with the permission (in one case, questionable permission) of its legislature: Vermont, the 14th state; Kentucky, the 15th state; West Virginia, the 36th state; and then Texas, which had been the independent Republic of Texas for a decade, the 34th state; and California, which was admitted to the Union in 1850 directly from newly-acquired land from Mexico.
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 has always admitted that territory as a state. The broad outlines in this process were established by the Northwest Ordinance (1787), 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:
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 1837, but fears about the conflict with Mexico that would result delayed admission for nine years.[25] 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.
Today, there are several 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.[26] 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.[27] 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".[28]
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 2011. The task force's December 2007 status report reiterated and confirmed the proposals made in 2005.[28][29][30]
On April 29, 2010, the U.S. House of U.S. Congress voted 223–169 to approve a Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2010 bill for a federal sanctioned process for Puerto Rico's self determination allowing Puerto Rico to set a new referendum that it would pave the way for the first congressionally mandated votes on status in the island, and (potentially) statehood by 2011.[31]
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.
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."[32] This was the case when Maine was split off from Massachusetts; and when West Virginia was split from Virginia during the Civil War. 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.[33]
The Constitution is silent on the issue of the secession of a state from the union. However, its predecessor document, the Articles of Confederation, stated that the United States of America "shall be perpetual." The question of whether or not individual states held the right to unilateral secession remained a difficult and divisive one until the American Civil War. In 1860 and 1861, eleven southern states seceded, but following their defeat in the American Civil War were brought back into the Union during the Reconstruction Era. Following the Civil War, the United States Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, held that states did not have the right to secede and that any act of secession was legally void. Drawing on the Preamble to the Constitution, which states that the Constitution was intended to "form a more perfect union" and speaks of the people of the United States of America in effect as a single body politic, as well as the language of the Articles of Confederation, the Supreme Court maintained that states did not have a right to secede. However, the court's reference in the same decision to the possibility of such changes occurring "through revolution, or through consent of the States," essentially means that this decision holds that no state has a right to unilaterally decide to leave the Union.[3][4]
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 it has no legal effect. Somewhat confusingly, two U.S. territories — Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas — are also referred to as commonwealths, and that designation does have a legal status different from that of the 50 states. Both of these commonwealths are unincorporated territories of the United States.
State names speak to the circumstances of their creation. See the lists of U.S. state name etymologies and U.S. county name etymologies.
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.
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