United States Constitution: Articles 4-7. Making the Federal System Work

ARTICLE 4

SECTION 1. KEEPING STATE RECORDS

• Each State must respect the Laws, Public Records and Court Proceedings of every other State.
• Congress decides the manner of these legal records can be proved in other States.
• Congress has to decide what effect this will have.

SECTION 2. CITIZENS' BASIC RIGHTS

• Citizens of one State have the same rights as citizens of every other State.
• A State must return a Citizen charged with a serious crime in another State if requested by the Governor of the State where the crime was committed.
• A State must return a runaway Slave to the Party who owns that Slave, even if it is in another State.
  • Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) ruled that no black person, slave or free, could be a United States citizen.
  • This was changed by the 13th Amendment when it ended slavery.

SECTION 3. NEW STATES AND TERRITORIES

• New States can be added to the United States.
• New States cannot be formed from the existing territory of a State without its consent and the consent of Congress.
• No State can be created by joining two States without the consent of the States and the consent of Congress.
  • Five States have been formed from existing States:
  • 1791. Vermont from New York.
  • 1792. Kentucky from Virginia.
  • 1796. Tennessee from North Carolina.
  • 1820. Maine from Massachusetts.
  • 1863. West Virginia from Virginia.
• Congress legislates the laws and rules for all United States territory and property.
• Nothing in this Constitution can be interpreted to hurt the claims of the United States or any State.

SECTION 4. GUARANTEE TO THE STATES

• Each State will have a republican form of government.
• Each State shall be protected from invasion.
• The Federal Government guarantees protection to any State from domestic violence if the State authorities request it.

ARTICLE 5

TWO WAYS TO CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION

First Way

1. Congress proposes an Amendment to the Constitution.
   • This requires two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
2. Congress proposes one of two ways to ratify the changes:
   • Three-fourths of the Legislatures, or
   • Three-fourths of State Conventions.

Second Way

1. Two-thirds of the State legislatures petition Congress to call a Constitutional Convention.
2. Congress proposes one of two ways to ratify the changes:
   • Three-fourths of the Legislatures, or
   • Three-fourths of State Conventions.

Two Conditions Placed on the Amendment Process

1. No Amendment ending the Slave Trade before 1808 can be passed.
2. No State, without its consent, will be deprived of its two representatives in the Senate.

Amendments proposed by Congress but never ratified by the States:

• The number of people represented by each member of the House of Representatives. Proposed 1789.
• Lawyers and others with titles from foreign nations surrender their citizenship. Proposed 1810.
• Protection of the practice of slavery. Proposed 1861.
• A Child Labor Amendment. Proposed 1926.
• The Equal Rights Amendment. Proposed 1972.
• Representation in Congress for the District of Columbia. Proposed 1978.

Source: Law Justia

ARTICLE 6

THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND

• The Federal Government will assume all debts and obligations made by the previous government, operating under the Articles of Confederation.
• The Constitution and all Federal laws and treaties are the Supreme Law of the United States.
• All State judges must respect everything in the Constitution.
• Any State law that contradicts the Constitution must be disregarded.
• All Federal and State officials must swear to uphold the Constitution.
• A religious test will never be required to hold public office in the United States.

ARTICLE 7

Before the Constitution became the Supreme Law of the United States, it had to be ratified by State Conventions of at least nine of the thirteen States.

The proposed Constitution was completed and sent to the States on September 17,1787. It was ratified by nine of the thirteen States on July 26, 1788. This is the date when the Constitution went into effect and became law in those nine States. All thirteen States ratified the Constitution May 29, 1790.

Source: The National Constitution Center