Consent of Legislatures

                The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday comes from Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1:  “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor 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 as well as of the Congress.”  (Emphasis added.) This provision in the United States Constitution protects the sovereignty of each State because it prevents Congress from taking part or all of any State and joining it to another State.

                W. Cleon Skousen included statements from several Framers, which included the following:  “The Union cannot dismember a state without its consent” (Sherman).  “If new states were to be erected without the consent of the dismembered states, nothing but confusion would ensure…” (Butler).  (See The Making of America – The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, p. 637.)