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Constitution - Article Iv - The States

Article IV - The States

Section 1
Full Faith and Credit

Section 2
Privileges and Immunities, Extradition, Fugitive Slaves

Section 3
Admission of States

Section 4
Guarantees to States

Article four outlines the rights of the states. The most powerful of this is that the States authority shall not be usurped, section 1. This gives full faith and credit that the states know what they are doing and can govern themselves.

Section two insures that privileges, immunities, criminal charges and the like will not be removed by other states. Thus prevents you from committing murder in one state and escaping to another to avoid prosecution. Extradition is cover in this section.

Section three prevents any states from being formed within another state. And section four gives government protection to the states military wise and insures their republican form of government shall be protected as well.

States - Iv Article Constitution

This is probably one of the most powerful of all the articles, and one of the most unique to this country. It gives individual states rights and privileges as if they were independent countries, yet governed by the federal government and law. This is what the USA such an interesting place to live in, because you can move from one state to another, and have very differing laws.

Constitution - Article Iv - The States History & Civil Business Politics

The only problem with that is that the states have given up this sovereignty, for the most part. We willingly allowed the Supreme Court to override states' rights in such areas as civil rights, abortion, school choice, religious oppression, and commerce. All these things were done in the name of interstate commerce. Now, we have federal laws that tell states that they cannot allow polygamy within their state. We have a Supreme Court decision that forbids a particular state from requiring parental notification of an underage abortion, despite the fact that this article clearly explains that these things belong to the states themselves.

This article was made even stronger by the 10 Amendment. But, in my view, both have been devastated.