Admission Standards and Guarantees
Could Puerto Rico be admitted as the fifty-first state in the Union? Could California be divided into Northern California and Southern California? Could Missouri and Kansas join together to form one new state? Once admitted to the Union, what guarantees and protection does the U.S. government provide to the states? These questions are all answered in Sections 3 and 4 of Article IV of the U.S. Constitution.
In 1787, the drafters of the Constitution obviously wanted our new nation to continue to grow; thus, they felt the country needed guidelines to control and govern this anticipated expansion. This concern of the drafters was demonstrated by Section 3, Clause 1 of Article IV. According to the Constitution, "new States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State 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." Article IV, therefore, provides that both the House of Representatives and Senate have to approve the formation or admission of new states. All states other than the 13 original states have been admitted to the Union under this section.
For years, there has been discussion about Puerto Rico becoming the fifty-first state in the Union. Regardless of whether the Puerto Ricans want to become the fifty-first state of the United States, Congress would have the ultimate approval. According to Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Constitution, the President would not be able to reject such an application.
Similarly, the citizens, lawmakers and West Coast news media have mentioned the possibility of California becoming split into the states of Northern California and Southern California. This proposal is an obvious recognition by Californians of the differences in geography, weather and lifestyle in the two halves of that state. Nevertheless, the Constitution provides that even if Californians were to agree to this creation of two new states from one state, the House of Representatives and Senate would still have to approve the application. Likewise, if Missouri and Kansas wanted to join together to form one new state, the legislatures of Kansas and Missouri, as well as Congress, would have to agree to this request.
The creation of new states from land belonging to another state is not unprecedented. The first such example took place on February 4, 1791, when Congress approved the formation of the state of Kentucky "within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Virginia" after Virginia had agreed to its formation. The states of Tennessee, Maine and West Virginia were among later additions to the Union under this provision governing the formation of states from the territories of other states.
In general, the traditional requirements of statehood are a commitment toward democracy in line with that exemplified in the American form of government; the consent of a majority of the people; and a determination that the proposed new state has sufficient population and resources to support state government and assume its share of the operating costs of the federal government.
Once admitted as a state to this Union, the "equal footing doctrine" of Article IV provides that the laws of the United States become operative and the new state is placed on equal footing with the original states. Thus, when Hawaii was admitted to the United States as the fiftieth state in 1960, it was placed on the same footing as Massachusetts, for example. In addition to this, Hawaii simultaneously received certain guarantees and protections that all the other states enjoyed.
Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution specifically provides that "the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence," By "Republican Form of Government" the drafters of the Constitution obviously were not discussing political parties, but something more dear to their hearts: the right of people to choose their own officers for governmental administration and to pass their own laws. Unfortunately, the "guaranty clause" in Section 4 of Article IV does not dictate the means by which that guaranty is to be made effective. Although the guarantor is the United States, the Constitution does not specify which governmental branch bears the responsibility for enforcing this important guarantee.
In the landmark case of Luther v. Borden, the United States Supreme Court rejected the claim that the right to a "Republican Form of Government" was one that could be enforced by federal courts. Instead, the highest court stated that only Congress has the authority to enforce that guarantee, as well as to determine the means to be used in meeting this requirement. In 1795, however, Congress delegated to the President the responsibility of deciding when the federal government should interfere to fulfill the guarantee. Since Luther v. Borden the law has been interpreted to mean that the enforcement of Article IV of the Constitution is for the political branches of the government, namely the executive and legislative branches.
In addition to the "guarantee clause," Article IV also provides for protection against "domestic violence." As with the guarantee clause, the enforcement of this constitutional obligation has been placed on Congress. It has, in turn, delegated a substantial portion of this responsibility to the President. Under this provision, and under Article I, Section 8, the President has the power to deal with domestic violence even when there has been no request from the state involved.
Racial conflicts in the early 1960s illustrated the application of Article IV and other sections of the Constitution. For example, in 1962 President John F. Kennedy used federal troops to secure enforcement of federal court orders providing for desegregation in Oxford, Mississippi. Despite the opposition of the governor of Mississippi, federal troops were dispatched to the scene and black students were admitted to the schools. Incidents such as this illustrate that the limitation language contained in the domestic violence clause (requiring the state to request help) has been of little or no practical importance.
Sections 3 and 4 of Article IV of the Constitution cover state admission standards and government guarantees. Although these provisions of the Constitution may not be the most well-known, Article IV provides us with the means by which new states may be created and admitted, as well as the government guarantees bestowed upon each state, whether old or new.