U.S. State

The United States is a federal republic made up of fifty states, of which forty-eight form a large continuous land block between Canada and Mexico. In the United States, a state is a political and geographic subdivision of the federated American nation. Article Four of the US Constitution outlines the relationship between each state, and between the states and the federal government. The doctrine of state’s rights asserts that states have authority in matters not delegated to the federal government. Marginalized groups have often appealed to state legislatures as a major step to combat animosity from others to improve their lives when members of minority groups faced artificially manufactured prejudice and challenges from the dominant White society.

Brief History

The American Revolution (1775–1783) curtailed British control over the Thirteen Colonies (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia). The Articles of Confederation adopted by the Continental Congress (1777) created a weak central government. The subsequent Constitution (1787) described requisites for a territory to qualify to join the Union: Congress appointed a governor, secretary, and three judges; the territory was required to be home to 5,000 free male residents who would elect a legislature and non-voting delegates to the Congress; and when the territory had at least 60,000 franchised men, it could apply to be admitted to the Union.

Nullification is the notion that a state may choose not to enforce a law passed by the federal government. It first emerged with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolution (1798), which shaped Southern sensibilities on states’ rights prior to the Civil War. John Caldwell Calhoun, who served as US vice president under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson was a stanch advocate for slavery and states’ rights. States’ rights were first tested in 1834 when the South Carolina legislature nullified the Tariff Law of 1828 as unconstitutional. As American nationalism emerged, early reform impulses manifested themselves in five distinct phases that influenced participatory activism at the state level: moral reform (1810s–1820), the creation of utopian societies (1820s), institutional reform (1830s), the abolition movement (1830s), and the movement for women’s rights (1840s).

"Manifest Destiny" was the slogan used to justify western expansion to the Pacific Coast. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 prompted a settlement rush in the West in which Native Americans were displaced or, as in the case of California, made landless. When California joined the Union as a "free" state, legislative acts systematically marginalized freeborn Americans of African ancestry, along with Chinese and other immigrant groups, who were perceived as competition for scarce resources in urban areas and in the gold fields. Under coverture, husbands wielded complete and arbitrary control over their wives. Conversely, San Francisco was a violent and lawless place with little regard for human life, where respectable women were scarce. An important but subtle shift of power and resources occurred when the California state legislature granted married women control of their real property.

The conflict between free and slave states intensified and led to Southern states seceding as the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederacy, and a constitution was enacted to protect Confederate states’ rights to retain slavery. Union victory meant slavery was abolished, but the subsequent Reconstruction of the South caused fierce controversy and debate in the US Senate over the political and civil rights of African Americans. Emerging Jim Crow laws maintained the separation of the races in southern states. While the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868 protected citizens' rights and emphasized equal rights, segregation emphasized the idea of separate but equal to obliterate contact between Black and White people.

Although California women could vote in state and local elections in 1912, American women garnered the right to vote in national elections only after state-by-state ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920.

Overview

The circumstances by which each state entered the Union shaped its political character. State politics dictate control over resources within state jurisdictions. Diverse influences among the American states fell into distinct geographic cultures that displayed variation as growth of regional politics centered on metropolitan areas. States each have their own economic and societal interests, which are sometimes in conflict with national interests or federal law. For example, states are frequently at odds with federal law over issues related to drugs, especially marijuana, and firearms. Each state has its own constitution, judiciary, legislature, and executive, as well as representation in the US Congress.

There is no universal concept of civil rights in the United States, though civil rights are a hallmark of American democracy. Direct democracy mediated with checks and balances tests the capabilities of a society comprised of diverse interest groups. Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement in 1955, concentrating efforts in the southern "Jim Crow" states, with protests designed to garner national attention. Changes to conditions in the south began with changes in and enforcement of federal law, with states gradually bowing to national pressure. In the twenty-first century, same-sex marriage became a defining social issue in American politics. States’ high court decisions finding in favor of same-sex marriage equality claims highlighted dramatic shifts in societal values that were core to the issue’s ascent to the national political agenda. The jurisprudential evolution of same-sex marriage traveled from state to state, beginning in Hawaii and continuing through Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, and Iowa before culminating in a favorable Supreme Court ruling. In 2021, the reversal of the Supreme Court decision on Roe vs. Wade placed the power to set rules around abortion with the states, resulting in some states, such as Texas and Florida, enacting strict laws limiting abortion, and other states opting to add amendments to their constitutions to protect abortion, such as with Arizona and Colorado.

Bibliography

Asumah, Seth N. Diversity, Social Justice and Inclusive Excellence: Transdisciplinary and Global Perspectives. Albany: State U of New York P, 2014. Print.

Brogan, Michaiel J. Modern Budget Forecasting in the American States: Precision, Uncertainty, and Politics. Lantham: Lexington, 2015. Print.

Hoarnbeek, John A. Water Pollution Policies and the American States: Runaway Bureaucracies or Congressional Control? Albany: State U of New York (SUNY) P, 2011. Print.

Hall, Joshua, Kaitlyn Harger, and Dean Stansel. "Economic Freedom and Recidivism: Evidence from US States." International Advances in Economic Research 21.2 (2015): 155–165. Business Source Complete. Web. 9 Jan. 2016.

Hume, Robert J. Courthouse Democracy and Minority Rights: Same-Sex Marriage in the States. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

"Outcome of Abortion-Related State Constitutional Amendment Measures in the 2024 Election." KFF, 6 Nov. 2024, www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/dashboard/ballot-tracker-status-of-abortion-related-state-constitutional-amendment-measures/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2025. 

Pearson, Jason. Same-Sex Marrage in the United States: The Road to the Supreme Court. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman, 2013. Print.

Pelka, Fred. What Have We Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 2012. Print.

Solinger, Rickie. Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

Squire, Peveril, and Gary F. Moncrief. State Legislatures Today: Politics Under the Domes. Boston: Longman, 2010. Print.

Vasseur, Michael. "Convergence and Divergence in Renewable Energy Policy among US States from 1998 to 2011." Social Forces 92.4 (2014): 1637–1657. Business Source Complete. Web. 9 Jan. 2016.