ADMISSION TO THE UNION

(WIKIPEDIA)

The Admission to the Union Clause of the United States Constitution, often called the New States Clause, found at Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1, authorizes the Congress to admit new states into the United Statesbeyond the thirteen already in existence at the time the Constitution went into effect.

Senator Miriam J Ramirez raises
gigantic USA flag in SJ Puerto Rico

The Constitution went into effect on June 21, 1788, after ratification by 9 of the 13 states, and the federal government began operations under it on March 4, 1789.^[1]Since then, 37 additional states have been admitted into the Union. Each new state has been admitted on an equal footing with those already in existence.^[2]

Of the 37 states admitted to the Union by Congress, all but six have been established within an existing U.S. organized incorporated territory. A state so created might encompass all or a portion of a territory. When the people of a territory or a region thereof have grown to a sufficient population and make their desire for statehood known to the federal government, in most cases Congress passed an enabling act authorizing the people of that territory or region to frame a proposed state constitution as a step toward admission to the Union. Although the use of an enabling act was a common historic practice, a number of states were admitted to the Union without one.

In many instances, an enabling act would detail the mechanism by which the territory would be admitted as a state following ratification of their constitution and election of state officers. Although the use of such an act is a traditional historic practice, a number of territories have drafted constitutions for submission to Congress absent an enabling act and were subsequently admitted. The broad outline for this process was established by the Land Ordinance of 1784and the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, both of which predate the present U.S. Constitution.

The Admission to the Union Clause also forbids the creation of new states from parts of existing states without the consent of both the affected states and Congress. The primary intent of this caveat was to give Eastern states that still had western land claims (there were four at that time^[which?]) a veto over whether their western counties could become states.^[3] This clause has served the same function since, each time a proposal to partition an existing state or states has arisen.