The Union shall consist of equal States. No State shall be denied equal dignity, sovereignty, representation, or protection under this Constitution on account of the date, manner, or conditions of its admission.
Each State retains all powers of internal governance not delegated to the United States by this Constitution nor prohibited to the States by this Constitution.
Each State shall maintain a constitution, laws, and institutions of government consistent with this Constitution.
Every State shall maintain a republican form of government founded upon the consent of the governed, regular elections under law, the rule of law, and the equal civil and political rights of all persons.
No State shall establish monarchy, hereditary office, permanent oligarchy, or any form of government inconsistent with popular sovereignty under this Constitution.
Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, judicial proceedings, and official determinations of every other State.
The Congress may by general law prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, proceedings, and determinations shall be proved and the effect thereof, provided that no such law shall deny due process of law or equal protection of the laws.
Citizens of each State shall be entitled to the privileges, immunities, and equal civil treatment of citizens in the several States.
No State shall arbitrarily discriminate against citizens of another State in matters of travel, residence, employment, property, access to courts, or ordinary civil life, except as narrowly required by laws of general applicability consistent with this Constitution.
The States shall owe one another mutual respect, comity, and cooperation consistent with this Constitution.
The Congress may establish by general law fair procedures for the resolution of interstate administrative, civil, and jurisdictional disputes.
A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other serious offense, who shall flee from justice and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive authority of the State having jurisdiction of the offense be delivered up for removal to the State having jurisdiction.
The Congress may by general law provide procedures for interstate rendition consistent with due process of law and the rights of the accused.
New States may be admitted into this Union only on equal footing with the existing States.
No new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any existing State, nor shall 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 and of the Congress.
All territories, possessions, regions, districts, or other permanent inhabited areas under the sovereignty of the United States that are not States on the date of ratification of this Constitution shall become immediately eligible for admission as States.
No permanent inhabited territory under the sovereignty of the United States shall be held indefinitely in a condition of unequal political status.
Upon ratification of this Constitution, Puerto Rico, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands shall each be immediately eligible to become States under this Article.
The Congress may by general law recognize any additional permanent inhabited territory or possession of the United States as likewise eligible if such territory or possession exists under the sovereignty of the United States.
A territory eligible for statehood under this Article shall be admitted as a State when:
Upon satisfaction of these conditions, admission shall not be denied, delayed, or made contingent upon further discretionary approval, except for the ministerial acts necessary to carry the admission into effect.
Every State admitted under this Article shall enter the Union on equal footing with every other State, with full representation in the Congress, full participation in presidential and all other federal elections, and all rights, privileges, duties, and protections secured by this Constitution and laws made pursuant to it.
The Congress shall by general law provide for the prompt apportionment, seating, and election of Senators, Representatives, Censors where applicable, Presidential electors, and all other officers whose selection depends upon statehood.
No admitted State shall be denied representation beyond the next regular federal election cycle following its admission, and interim provision may be made by law for temporary representation where necessary to avoid disenfranchisement.
Until the government of a newly admitted State is fully organized under its State constitution, the existing territorial or local government shall continue to operate except where inconsistent with this Constitution or the laws enacted pursuant to it.
The Congress shall by general law provide for the orderly transition of each newly admitted State, including transfer of powers, preservation of existing laws not inconsistent with this Constitution, succession to public property and obligations, and the scheduling of State and federal elections.
Nothing in this Article shall prevent an eligible territory from choosing, by lawful referendum held under standards established by general law, to remain a territory for a temporary period, to seek independence, or to seek free association, if this Constitution and the laws made pursuant to it permit such status.
No such choice shall be presumed. Equal statehood shall remain the default constitutional path for every permanent inhabited territory under the sovereignty of the United States unless the people thereof lawfully choose another status.
Until final admission as a State or lawful adoption of another status, the people of every permanent inhabited territory under the sovereignty of the United States shall enjoy the civil rights, liberties, and constitutional protections secured to persons by this Constitution.
No territory shall be governed outside the Constitution, and no person shall be denied the protection of this Constitution merely by reason of residence in a territory.
The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make needful rules and regulations respecting the property, installations, and uninhabited possessions of the United States, provided that no such power shall be construed to authorize perpetual civil subordination of any permanent inhabited territory otherwise entitled to statehood under this Article.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion, insurrection, unlawful seizure of government, and organized violence that the State cannot reasonably suppress through its lawful authorities.
Upon application of the legislature of a State, or of its executive when the legislature cannot be convened in time, the United States shall provide such protection.
The United States may act without such application when a State government has been unlawfully displaced, federal constitutional rights cannot otherwise be secured, or the continuity of constitutional government in the State has materially failed.
If the lawful government of a State ceases to function in constitutional form, or if elections, succession, or the operation of government are substantially obstructed in violation of this Constitution, the Congress shall have power by general law to provide temporary measures necessary to restore constitutional civil government.
Any such measures shall be narrowly tailored, temporary, subject to judicial review, and directed solely to restoring the lawful government of the State and the constitutional rights of its people.
The Congress shall have power to enforce and implement this Article by general law.
The courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction to hear cases arising under this Article, including cases seeking to compel compliance with the nondiscretionary duties of admission, equal footing, representation, and constitutional protection established herein.
States, territorial governments, and where provided by law the people thereof shall have standing to vindicate rights secured by this Article.