re: #124 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷

The 1787 Northwest Ordinance established a minimum population to create a state out of that territory (60,000), but the Constitution itself is silent on the matter of the number of people to create a state.

Mostly the criteria were during slavery that a slave state had to be pared with a free state in order for both to be admitted to the Union to maintain the balance of power.

In the Civil War and Reconstruction, with Democrats out of the government, the GOP used their power to admit eight new states.

After Reconstruction was over, pairing off states has been based on party alignment, admitting a Republican-controlled and a Democratic-controlled state to maintain the balance of power.

There is no particular requirement to admit a state, however. The proposed state must submit a constitution representing a republican form of government which is approved. After that, simple majorities in both houses can admit the state. States may not be created out of existing states without approval of the state legislature and the proposed new state, nor may states be joined together without approval of both state legislatures.

Boundary disputes are settled by the Supreme Court (the Toledo Strip, Ellis Island, Carter Lake Iowa being examples).

The claim West Virginia is not a legally-constituted state arises from a Supreme Court case called Virginia v West Virginia in 1871, specifically the dissent (the case was decided 6-3). The Qnut congressman who claims West Virginia is not a state relies on the dissent in that case (though dissents do not hold the force of law).

I was just thinking of the Dakotas earlier today and maybe we need to set a minimum population for a state at 1-1.5 million people.