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.
I am not your lawyer. This is not legal advice.
Section 1 is the “Full Faith and Credit” clause, which says that each State has to respect the governmental acts of the others. And Congress can smoothe the process by prescribing (read: defining) the manner in which such things are proved and the effect thereof (read: how to move your documents and whatnot from Wyoming to Maine and be sure Maine can accept them).
Section 2 begins with the “privileges and immunities” clause, another one of the big, famous parts of the document. So, there is a delicate balance that needs to be walked in a federal system, what with the dual sovereignty and whatnot. The thing being, we (Americans) are all citizens of the United States of America. We (Americans) are also all citizens of a state or territory or district. And, not half-way. We’re fully citizens of one and also fully citizens of the other. And, what this is saying is, you can’t deny people access to the courts of your state—for example—because they are citizens of another state and also citizens of these United States.
Section 2 then moves on to two related concepts. First, fugitives from justice in one state may be extradited to another state. There are three ways—with varying degrees of usefulness—to deal with fugitives from justice. This is one, in which fugutives are sent back to the charging state. Another is to try the fugitives for the crimes in the state where they ran. The third is to just shrug and figure, better one hundred guilty escape than that one innocent is convicted.
The related clause is related to slaves, and the return of escaped slaves. This is one of the parts of the constitution that has been amended out, using a process we will talk about briefly in about two weeks.
But next week, another double to round out Article IV! You’re almost there!