The Constitution - Article IV

The articles follow a logical order.

We start with the legislative branch, because that is how laws will be made, and then we can go forward with making laws and getting this country going. Then you cover the executive and judicial branches, rounding out the federal, but that leads us naturally into the role of the states, and then we have some housekeeping and procedural items to settle that will allow a forward motion.

Article IV is where we go over the states, and this is another clause that we sometimes hear about: the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

"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."

It doesn't matter than Pennsylvania is bigger than Rhode Island, or if New York has more money than North Carolina, they are all states and their actions will be recognized as valid by others.

That means that if you are wanted for a crime in one state and cross into another state, you can still be extradited. If you have a drivers license issued by Oregon, you can drive in Washington.

There are other things that have not been established as being included within that, because there is some ambiguity. It was not considered to apply to interracial marriages when states had different laws on those, and while there could have been cases coming up testing the clause for same-sex marriage, that fight was ended when it was approved federally.

There is also some information about the admission of new states, which helped that process go smoothly. When there were issues with that process, it would be about the Slavery question, and that rears its ugly head here too, with Section 2 specifying that a slave escaping into a another state did not mean freedom. (The insertion of this clause required some less than open reinsertion after it was struck down.) A tendency by some states to not adhere too fully to this clause gave us two Fugitive Slave Acts and the Dred Scott decision.

There is also a reinforcement of the rights of states to representation, and a protection of their property. This is significant for two reasons.

The protection of personal property has been considered an essential part of protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness all along. If what was yours was not yours, then how free are you? How safe are you? And perhaps how happy can you be? That in itself is fine, though certainly an overemphasis on property can impede happiness as well.

However, once we have decided - in this document and in the formation of this country - that a person can be property, then the document is compromised. It means that there in injustice built into the foundation of the nation, and that is going to lead to conflict and death and destruction.

It also means that the country has in its DNA a need and ability to be able to look at a person and see less of a person. We still haven't rooted that out.

That Article IV invokes equality and balance between the states is good, but the flaw that started in the very first Article is woven throughout the whole document.