Constitution Annotated

Article IV — Relationships Between the States

In this part

ArtIV.1 Overview of Article IV, Relationships Between the States

Article IV of the U.S. Constitution is sometimes called the “States’ Relations Article.”1 It contains several provisions concerning the federalist structure of government established by the Constitution, which divides sovereignty between the states and the National Government.2

Sections 1 and 2 concern the states’ relationships with each other. Section 1 is referred to as the Full Faith and Credit Clause, and requires states to recognize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of other states;3 for example, states must generally give effect to judgments issued by an out-of-state court.4 Section 2 addresses interstate comity, that is, harmony and cooperation among the states. Its first clause grants the citizens of each state the privileges and immunities of the citizens of other states, preventing states from discriminating against non-residents in favor of their own citizens.5 Its second clause addresses when a person accused of a crime flees from one state to another, requiring the state where the fugitive is found to return him to the state where he has been charged with a crime, upon proper demand.6

Sections 3 and 4 concern the states’ relationships to the National Government. Section 3 grants Congress two important powers: to admit new states into the union,7 and to govern federal territories and property.8 Through Section 4, known as the Guarantee Clause, the United States promises to protect the states against foreign invasion and domestic insurrection, and to ensure that each state has “a Republican Form of Government.”9

Notes
  1. Baldwin v. Fish & Game Comm’n of Mont., 436 U.S. 371, 379 (1978). ↩
  2. See generally Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. 452, 457–60 (1991) (describing the “federalist structure of joint sovereigns” established under the Constitution). ↩
  3. U.S. CONST. art. IV, § 1. ↩
  4. See ArtIV.S1.1 Overview of Full Faith and Credit Clause. ↩
  5. See ArtIV.S1.1 Overview of Full Faith and Credit Clause. ↩
  6. See ArtIV.S2.C2.1 Overview of Extradition (Interstate Rendition) Clause. The third clause of Section 2 envisioned an analogous process for enslaved persons who escaped to another state, but it was nullified in 1865 by the Thirteenth Amendment. ↩
  7. See ArtIV.S3.C1.1 Overview of Admissions (New States) Clause. ↩
  8. See ArtIV.S3.C2.1 Property Clause Generally. ↩
  9. U.S. CONST. art. IV, § 4, cl. 1. The Supreme Court has generally refused to hear cases on the Guarantee Clause based on the political question doctrine. ArtIII.S2.C1.9.1 Overview of Political Question Doctrine; ArtIV.S4.2 Guarantee Clause Generally. ↩