Difficulty: The definition is not constant in the United States Code. For example, in the Internal Revenue Code, there is a general definition, and then there are sections that have their own special definitions just for that section. The special definitions in the sections for excise taxes on tires and petroleum products mention the 50 states, but the section for employment taxes DOES NOT.
Cite the section of 8 USC Immigration and Nationality that mentions 50 states or lists them by name
Difficulty: Impossible because it does't exist. 8 USC deals only with foreigners and visas and naturalization, both issues that don't affect people born in the states of the Union.
The only definition that matters is what they were during our Founders time. They defined States as their own sovereign entities, or countries, for all intents and purposes.
“All questions of power, arising under the constitution of the United States, whether they relate to the federal or a state government, must be considered of great importance. The federal government being formed for certain purposes, is limited in its powers, and can in no case exercise authority where the power has not been delegated. The states are sovereign; with the exception of certain powers, which have been invested in the general government, and inhibited to the states. No state can coin money, emit bills of credit, pass ex post facto laws, or laws impairing the obligation of contracts, &c. If any state violate a provision of the constitution, or be charged with such violation to the injury of private rights, the question is made before this tribunal; to whom all such questions, under the constitution, of right belong. In such a case, this court is to the state, what its own supreme court would be, where the constitutionality of a law was questioned under the constitution of the state. And within the delegation of power, the decision of this court is as final and conclusive on the state, as would be the decision of its own court in the case stated.” ~ Justice John McLean (1785-1861) U. S. Congressman for Ohio (1813-16), U.S. Postmaster General, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1830-61), presidential candidate for the Whig and Republican parties
Craig v. Missouri, 4 Peters 410 (1830) [29 U.S. 410, 464]
“The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes [and] delegated to that government certain definite powers and whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force. To this compact each state acceded as a state, and is an integral party, its co-states forming, as to itself, the other party. The government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution the measure of its powers.” ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President
in his draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 which were written in response to an attempt by Congress to expand the criminal jurisdiction of the federal government through a set of laws entitled the "Alien and Sedition Laws."
“It is federal, because it is the government of States united in a political union, in contradistinction to a government of individuals, that is, by what is usually called, a social compact. To express it more concisely, it is federal and not national because it is the government of a community of States, and not the government of a single State or Nation.” ~ John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) American statesman
1850, John C. Calhoun's essay entitled A Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States
“If the Union was formed by accession of States then the Union may be dissolved by the secession of States.” ~ Daniel Webster (1782-1852) US Senator
U.S. Senate, Feb 15, 1833
Define 'United States' and 'State'
Difficulty: The definition is not constant in the United States Code. For example, in the Internal Revenue Code, there is a general definition, and then there are sections that have their own special definitions just for that section. The special definitions in the sections for excise taxes on tires and petroleum products mention the 50 states, but the section for employment taxes DOES NOT.
Cite the section of 8 USC Immigration and Nationality that mentions 50 states or lists them by name
Difficulty: Impossible because it does't exist. 8 USC deals only with foreigners and visas and naturalization, both issues that don't affect people born in the states of the Union.
The only definition that matters is what they were during our Founders time. They defined States as their own sovereign entities, or countries, for all intents and purposes.
“All questions of power, arising under the constitution of the United States, whether they relate to the federal or a state government, must be considered of great importance. The federal government being formed for certain purposes, is limited in its powers, and can in no case exercise authority where the power has not been delegated. The states are sovereign; with the exception of certain powers, which have been invested in the general government, and inhibited to the states. No state can coin money, emit bills of credit, pass ex post facto laws, or laws impairing the obligation of contracts, &c. If any state violate a provision of the constitution, or be charged with such violation to the injury of private rights, the question is made before this tribunal; to whom all such questions, under the constitution, of right belong. In such a case, this court is to the state, what its own supreme court would be, where the constitutionality of a law was questioned under the constitution of the state. And within the delegation of power, the decision of this court is as final and conclusive on the state, as would be the decision of its own court in the case stated.” ~ Justice John McLean (1785-1861) U. S. Congressman for Ohio (1813-16), U.S. Postmaster General, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1830-61), presidential candidate for the Whig and Republican parties Craig v. Missouri, 4 Peters 410 (1830) [29 U.S. 410, 464]
“The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes [and] delegated to that government certain definite powers and whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force. To this compact each state acceded as a state, and is an integral party, its co-states forming, as to itself, the other party. The government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution the measure of its powers.” ~ Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President in his draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 which were written in response to an attempt by Congress to expand the criminal jurisdiction of the federal government through a set of laws entitled the "Alien and Sedition Laws."
“It is federal, because it is the government of States united in a political union, in contradistinction to a government of individuals, that is, by what is usually called, a social compact. To express it more concisely, it is federal and not national because it is the government of a community of States, and not the government of a single State or Nation.” ~ John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) American statesman 1850, John C. Calhoun's essay entitled A Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States
“If the Union was formed by accession of States then the Union may be dissolved by the secession of States.” ~ Daniel Webster (1782-1852) US Senator U.S. Senate, Feb 15, 1833