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The Guarantee Clause of Article 4 of the Constitution states that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." These two provisions indicate states did not surrender their wide latitude to adopt a constitution, the fundamental documents of state law, when the U.S. Constitution was adopted.
The following table is a list of all 50 states and their respective dates of statehood. The first 13 became states in July 1776 upon agreeing to the United States Declaration of Independence, and each joined the first Union of states between 1777 and 1781, upon ratifying the Articles of Confederation, its first constitution. [6]
The Constitution went into effect on June 21, 1788, in the nine states that had ratified it, and the U.S. federal government began operations under it on March 4, 1789, when it was in effect in 11 out of the 13 states. [1] Since then, 37 states have been admitted into the Union.
The Constitution of the United States is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world. [ 4 ] [ a ] The drafting of the Constitution , often referred to as its framing, was completed at the Constitutional Convention , which assembled at Independence Hall in Philadelphia between May 25 and ...
Most of the states admitted to the Union after the original 13 have been formed from organized territories established and governed by Congress in accord with its plenary power under Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution. [2] Six subsequent states were never an organized territory of the federal government, or part of one, before ...
Under U.S. constitutional law, the 50 individual states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions. [16] The states are not administrative divisions of the country; the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution reserves to the states or to the people all powers of government not delegated to the federal government.
The United States of America is a federal republic [1] consisting of 50 states, a federal district (Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States), five major territories, and various minor islands. [2] [3] Both the states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions. [4]
States that rights not enumerated in the Constitution are retained by the people. September 25, 1789 December 15, 1791 2 years, 81 days 10th [21] States that the federal government possesses only those powers delegated, or enumerated, to it through the Constitution, and that all other powers are reserved to the states, or to the people.