U.S. Constitution, Annotated

Read the Preamble to the Constitution and the associated annotations.

ARTICLE IV.

(Much of this article was taken word for word from the old Articles of Confederation)

Section 1.

RELATION OF THE STATES TO EACH OTHER

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.  And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.

Commentary:  This section requires the states to honor one another's laws, records, and court rulings.

Article IV
Section 2.

(1) The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

Commentary:  This means that citizens traveling from state to state are entitled to all the privileges and immunities that automatically go to citizens of those states.  Some privileges, such as the right to vote, do not automatically go with citizenship, but require a period of residence and perhaps other qualifications.  The word "citizen" in this provision does not include corporations.

(2) 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.

Commentary:  If a person commits a crime in one state and flees to another state, the governor of the state in which the crime was committed can demand that the fugitive be handed over.  The process of returning an accused person is called extradition.  In a few cases, a governor has refused to extradite.  The governor might do so because the crime was committed many years ago or because he or she believes the accused would not get a fair trial in the other state.

(3) [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.

Commentary:  A "person held to service or labor" was a slave or an indentured servant (a person bound by contract to serve someone for several years).  No one is now bound to servitude in the United States, so this part of the Constitution, being superseded by the 13th Amendment, no longer has any force.

Article IV
Section 3.

FEDERAL-STATE RELATIONS

(1) 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.

Commentary:  New states cannot be formed by dividing or joining existing states without the consent of the state legislatures and Congress.  During the Civil War (1861-1865), Virginia fought for the Confederacy, but people in the western part of the state supported the Union.  After West Virginia split from Virginia, Congress accepted the new state on the ground that Virginia had rebelled.

(2) 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; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.

Article IV
Section 4.

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.

Commentary:  This section requires the federal government to make sure that every state has a "republican form of government."  A republican government is one in which the people elect representatives to govern.  The Supreme Court ruled that Congress, not the courts, must decide whether a state government is Republican.  If Congress admits a state's Senators and Representatives, that action indicates that Congress considers the state's government Republican.

The legislature or governor of a state can request federal aid in dealing with riots or other internal violence. But the President does not need a state's consent to send federal forces, including military ones, to enforce federal laws.  During the Pullman strike of 1894, the federal government sent troops to Illinois even though the state governor did not want them. In 1957 President Eisenhower nationalized the Arkansas National Guard in order to remove it from the command of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and sent in the United States Army to help implement the orders of a federal district judge that the Little Rock schools be racially desegregated.