Equal footing doctrine
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 221 U.S. 559 - Coyle v. Smith · 1911Most cited · 444 citing opinions
This Union' was and is a union of states, equal in power, dignity, and authority, each competent to exert that residuum of sovereignty not delegated to the United States by the Constitution itself. To maintain otherwise would be to say that the Union, through the power of Congress to admit new states, might come to be a union of states unequal in power, as including states whose powers were restricted only by the Constitution, with others whose powers had been further restricted by an act of Congress accepted as a condition of admission.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Equal footing doctrine”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “Equal footing doctrine” — 574 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1911–1912
On her admission she at once became entitled to and possessed of all the rights of dominion and sovereignty which belonged to the original states. She was admitted, and could be admitted, only on the same footing with them. ... Equality of constitutional right and power is the condition of all the states of the Union, old and new.