D.C. Is A State But Not A State

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The above snippet is from page 234 of ...



Note the case Hepburn v. Ellzey is from 1803 and precedes the post-Civil-War Union. Here is one interesting and insightful excerpt from that case:

On the part of the plaintiffs it has been urged that Columbia is a distinct political society; and is therefore "a "state" according to the definitions of writers on general law.

This is true. But as the act of congress obviously uses the word "state" in reference to that term as used in the constitution, it becomes necessary to inquire whether Columbia is a state in the sense of that instrument. The result of that examination is a conviction that the members of the American confederacy only are the states contemplated in the constitution. Hepburn Dundas v. Ellzey 6 U.S. 445 (1805)

This case makes it clear that at least two classes of "states" exist in connection with the American political framework. The District of Columbia is an example of a "federal state" (an organized territory?) that is not a de jure state of America.

Related terms: saving to suitors clause, diversity of jurisdiction, sovereignty, district-state, territory, plenary power, Government of the United States, municipal law.