Article IV And The State Of Jefferson

January 23, 2013 1 1

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – When you talk about those states breaking off into chunks and separating, then that new state has a chance to write its own new constitution. In that constitution, it can choose whether or not it wishes to apply for entry into the union. There is nothing in the federal constitution that says — all it says is that if a state wishes to divide itself and form a new state out of its current territory, it can apply for admission into the union. Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike: Hello, Chris.

Caller Chris: Happy Birthday to your children and happy upcoming birthdays to you and AG.

Mike: Thank you. You can wish him happy birthday tomorrow.

Caller Chris: I have a question here about behavior engineering that’s been happening forever. You said that whole thing that happened in Utah would not be allowed because of the amendments to the Constitution and the Constitution itself, but they stopped paying attention to that in the days of Lincoln. They do that all the time currently. None of that has ever — it happened way back then, it happens today, and it’ll probably continue to happen because they do not know the limits. I think something like a secession like what you would see if the State of Jefferson, which you can still find their constitution online and they have a website and everything else, I think if we would have a secession of a chunk of northern California and southern Oregon, people might learn what exactly a State actually is and might return some of this whole idea as it was supposed to be back to what it was supposed to be from what it is compared to today.

Mike: Agreed. There’s another part of that that is equally intriguing and interesting and worthy of further deliberation. When you talk about those states breaking off into chunks and separating, then that new state has a chance to write its own new constitution. In that constitution, it can choose whether or not it wishes to apply for entry into the union. There is nothing in the federal constitution that says — all it says is that if a state wishes to divide itself and form a new state out of its current territory, it can apply for admission into the union. It’s all in Article V.

Caller Chris: Sadly, because of our public education —

Mike: It’s in Article IV.

Caller Chris: — people think we need to sign a petition on WhiteHouse.gov to make it happen. I don’t know how that came to be.

Mike: I know why that particular gentleman did that. Article IV: “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.” If California and Oregon had a convention and said you yahoos in the north of California and south of Oregon can form your silly little Jefferson State, Jefferson State can apply to Congress. Don’t tip your hand. Don’t tell them you’re not going to apply for admission into the union. Just leave it. Congress goes: Yeah, the more the merrier. We’ll have two new members of the Senate. And so it is done. The act of secession is made. Jefferson is then formed. There’s nothing in the rest of Article IV that says Jefferson now has to apply for admission into the union. They could and Congress can choose whether or not to accept them but they don’t have to. That’s another way to get out of this.

Caller Chris: I’ve been up in that area quite a bit. There’s quite a few barns that have painted on the roof you are entering the State of Jefferson. They still have that in the back of their minds. You can find a copy of their constitution. I’ve read it. It’s real interesting.

Mike: I’m going to look it up.

Caller Chris: I found it on television once and I’ve been enamored with it. I’ve spent a whole lot of time looking it up.

Mike: I’m going to apply some Founding Father Films brainpower to this question, my friend.

End Mike Church Show Transcript