U.S. State

An U.S. State is an constituent political entity of the United States.

• Context:
  • It can be composed of U.S. Municipalities (such as California cities), U.S. Counties (such as California counties), and U.S. Special Districts.
  • It can be composed of an U.S. State Government, with U.S. state agencies (such as ...) composed of U.S. state bureaucrats (...).
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • California, Texas, Florida, New York State, Massachusetts, Texas, Virginia, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Alaska, Tennessee, Missippi, ...
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Canadian Province.
  • a German State.
• See: Commonwealth (U.S. State), Federated State, State Governments of The United States, County (United States), County (United States).

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References

2016

• (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state Retrieved:2016-9-2.
  • A U.S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States. There are 50 states, which are bound together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory, and shares its sovereignty with the United States federal government. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the federal government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders (e.g., paroled convicts and children of divorced spouses who are sharing custody). States range in population from just under 600,000 (Wyoming) to over 38 million (California), and in area from (Rhode Island) to (Alaska). Four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local governmental authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state. State governments are allocated power by the people (of each respective state) through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in republican principles, and each provides for a government, consisting of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution; among them ratifying constitutional amendments. Historically, the tasks of local law enforcement, public education, public health, regulating intrastate commerce, and local transportation and infrastructure have generally been considered primarily state responsibilities, although all of these now have significant federal funding and regulation as well. Over time, the U.S. Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the federal government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a continuing debate over states' rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states' powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government and the rights of individuals. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a bicameral legislature consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House. Members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census. Each state is also entitled to select a number of electors to vote in the Electoral College, the body that elects the President of the United States, equal to the total of representatives and senators from that state. The Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50. Alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of whether states have the power to secede (withdraw) from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, held that a state cannot unilaterally do so.

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