Semester 2 Week 6

Credit: Kami Harris

Article 4.

Section 1

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. (This gives each state the right to have its official acts recognized and accepted by every other state.  It also gives every American the right to have any adjudication (to make an official decision about a problem or dispute) or decree in his own state officially accepted and legalized before the courts and administrative officials of all the other states.)  And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. (This provision gives the Congress the right to prescribe the form and manner in which official papers of one state shall be prepared in order to be officially accepted in all of the other states.)

Section 2

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.  (Each citizen has the same rights in all the other states that he is entitled to enjoy in his own state.)

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be

removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. (The gives each state the right to demand the return of any person charged with criminal acts within its jurisdiction.)

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, But shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. (No person under obligation to perform personal services in one state shall be discharged of such obligation by fleeing to another state where the requirement of such services is unlawful.  The person owing such service shall be delivered up to the person having claim on the same. This had reference to slaves and bond servants and became obsolete after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment.)

Section 3

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; (This provision gave Americans in territorial regions the right to be admitted as a state when they had fulfilled the prescribed requirements and the right to enter the Union on an equal footing) 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. (This provision gives each state the right to resist and attempt by Congress to create a new state within its borders without the consent of its legislature or to allow any attempt by Congress to join it with another state or give any part of its territory to another state without the consent of its legislature.)

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; (This provision gives Congress the exclusive right to determine how territory and property belonging to the United States shall be managed and regulated and disposed of before it is able to become a state.) and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. (This provision protected the right of the United States and any of the states to claims that were pending and had not yet been settled in the courts.  At the time the Constitution was adopted, some of the states claimed territories which were in dispute with other states; others were involved in territorial disputes with the national government.  This constitutional provision was to quiet the fears of states with territorial claims which were then pending.)

Section 4

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, (This provision gives the United States government the right to intervene in the affairs of any state whenever the right to freely elected representative government has ceased to exist of is in jeopardy of being destroyed.  A republican form of government is one in which the people are governed by freely elected representatives.  It is also presumed to be one in which political power is divided, balanced, and limited.) and shall protect each of them against Invasion; (This provision gives the federal government the right to use whatever military force is necessary to protect a stae from invasion by another state or by a foreign power.  It also gives each state the right to call upon the federal government to protect it from threatened invasion.) and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. (Because domestic violence may exceed the capacity of the stae militia to maintain law and order, this provision gives the states the right to call upon the federal government for assistance when necessary.)

(All information from Making of America chapter 26)