Article IV
Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
Section 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.
A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime.
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, But shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. (This clause is superseded by Amendment XIII.)
Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states 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.
The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular state.
Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. State referendums, and United States and State initiatives selected or qualified by popular signature petition or Citizens' Initiatives Assembly, are consistent with and not a contravention of a republican form of government.
Note: Text added by Section 5.1 of this Amendment is shown as brown underlined characters. The text would avoid lingering debate that initiatives might not be permitted by the Constitution.
Notes re Article IV Section 2 Clause 1 - the Comity Clause:
The intention of this clause was to help combine the several states into a federal republic. It grants the citizen of one state the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. The process is usually called "Interstate Comity".
This grant is often unstated in the state constitutions. Georgia is exceptional by specifically authorizing "All citizens of the United States, resident in this state, are hereby declared citizens of this state; and it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to enact such laws as will protect them in the full enjoyment of the rights, privileges, and immunities due to such citizenship."
This is important because these privileges thereby transfer to citizens of all states.
Notes re Article IV Section 4 - the Guarantee or Guaranty Clause
This clause guarantees a republican form of government.
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