MARYLAND, USA — Members of the Maryland General Assembly representing three Maryland counties have asked to split from the Old Line State and join neighboring West Virginia. In two letters to top West Virginia lawmakers, representatives from Allegany, Garrett and Washington counties asked for their counties to be accepted into the Mountain State.
Soon after, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice expressed support for the request, saying in a press conference he would be “tickled to death” to accept the counties into the state. It follows a trend of rural sections in blue states wanting to split off and join states with seemingly similar values, like rural Oregonians wanting to join Idaho.
If it happens, this would be a first for the country—the only exception being the Virginia/West Virginia split, which was similar, but a bit more confusing. So let’s verify how something unprecedented could take place.
THE QUESTION
Is it possible for some counties to leave a state and join another?
THE SOURCES
- Paul Schiff Berman, Walter S. Cox Professor of Law at the George Washington University
- Mark Graber, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Maryland
- U.S. Constitution, Article 4
THE ANSWER
Yes, if both states and Congress agree, a county could leave its state and join another.
WHAT WE FOUND
Article 4, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution lays out the standards by which new states can be added to the union. It dictates that new states can’t be formed from within a state or from the merging of states without the consent of the states involved and of Congress. Though it doesn’t directly reference trading land, our experts agreed this process is what would need to play out.
“The constitution is clear, no state may be divided without the permission of that state,” Mark Graber said. “It is only with the permission of the Maryland legislature that counties in Maryland can leave, and that's rather unlikely to occur.”
Paul Schiff Berman agreed, explaining that both state’s governors would also likely need to sign off on the county trade. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan told Baltimore local reporters he views the move as a “publicity stunt.”
Berman noted that a loss of Republican counties could actually hurt Republicans in other parts of the state.
“It seems unlikely as a political matter, because, for example, if rural counties in Maryland joined West Virginia, that would hurt Maryland Republicans,” Berman said. “They would lose a lot of their voting base in Maryland, so they would be unlikely to approve such a thing.”
Together, Allegany, Garrett and Washington Counties make up about 4% of Maryland’s population, according to 2020 Census data. However, these counties make up 6% of the state’s General Assembly. Between them, the counties hold 12 out of the 188 seats in Annapolis.
“It's interesting that these rural communities are looking to secede on the grounds that their interests don't coincide with the urban and suburban majorities of the states that they're in. That's certainly true. But actually, in our system, because of the electoral college, the composition of the U.S. Senate and the gerrymandering of the House in most states, it's actually the fact that rural populations wield outsized power,” Berman explains. “It's actually urban areas that are the most hurt by our current setup.”
We reached out to the members who signed the letters: Sen. George Edwards, Del. Wendell Beitzel, Del. Jason Buckel, Del. Mike McKay and Del. William Wivell. They did not respond with comments by the time of publishing.