Black's Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, p. 1407:

“State.  A people permanently occupying a fixed territory bound together by common-law habits and custom into one body politic exercising, through the medium of an organized government, independent sovereignty and control over all persons and things within its boundaries, capable of making war and peace and of entering into international relations with other communities of the globe.  United States v. Kusche, D.C.Cal., 56 F.Supp. 201 207, 208.  The organization of social life which exercises sovereign power in behalf of the people.  Delany v. Moralitis, C.C.A.Md., 136 F.2d 129, 130.  In its largest sense, a “state” is a body politic or a society of men.  Beagle v. Motor Vehicle Acc. Indemnification Corp., 44 Misc.2d 636, 254 N.Y.S.2d 763, 765.  A body of people occupying a definite territory and politically organized under one government.  State ex re. Maisano v. Mitchell, 155 Conn.  256, 231 A.2d 539, 542.  A territorial unit with a distinct general body of law.  Restatement, Second, Conflicts, §3.  Term may refer either to body politic of a nation (e.g. United States) or to an individual government unit of such nation (e.g. California).

[…]

The people of a state, in their collective capacity, considered as the party wronged by a criminal deed; the public; as in the title of a cause, “The State vs. A.B.”  [Black’s Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition, p. 1407]

WORDS AND PHRASES: "STATE"-detailed analysis of the word "STATE" from THE AUTHORITY

"State" defined in 18 Stat 3140-definition back when politicians and lawyers were more honest

Restatement 2nd, "State"

DISTINCTION BETWEEN "State"/"Territory" v. "state", FROM GREAT IRS HOAX, SECTION 4.8:

Let us carefully clarify the important distinctions between “States”, “territories", and “states” in the context of federal statutes to make our analysis crystal clear.  Remember that federal “territories” and “States” are synonymous as per 4 U.S.C. §110(d).  Keep in mind also that Indian reservations, while considered “sovereign nations” are also federal “States”:

Table 4-5:  Attributes of "State"/"Territory"  v. "state"

4 U.S.C. §110(d)

TITLE 4 - FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES

CHAPTER 4 - THE STATES

Sec. 110. Same; definitions
(d) The term ''State'' includes any Territory or possession of the United States. 

8 U.S.C. Sec. 1101(a)(36)

(a) Definitions

(36) State [Aliens and Nationality]

The term ''State'' includes the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States.

26 U.S.C. Sec. 7701(a)(10)

(a) Definitions

(10)State

The term ''State'' shall be construed to include the District of Columbia, where such construction is necessary to carry out provisions of this title.

28 U.S.C.  1332(d)

TITLE 28 > PART IV > CHAPTER 85 > Sec. 1332.  [Judiciary and Judicial Procedure]

Sec. 1332. - Diversity of citizenship; amount in controversy; costs

(d)  The word ''States'', as used in this section, includes the Territories, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Social Security Act of 1935, Section 1101:

Social Security Act of 1935, Section 1101

“The term State (except when used in section 531) includes Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia.”

[Social Security Act of 1935, Section 1101]

42 U.S.C.  §1301(a)(1): Current Social Security Act

“(1) The term ‘State’, except where otherwise provided, includes the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and when used in titles IV, V, VII, XI, XIX, and XXI includes the Virgin Islands and Guam. Such term when used in titles III, IX, and XII also includes the Virgin Islands. Such term when used in title V and in part B of this title also includes American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Such term when used in titles XIX and XXI also includes the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa. In the case of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam, titles I, X, and XIV, and title XVI (as in effect without regard to the amendment made by section 301 of the Social Security Amendments of 1972^[3]) shall continue to apply, and the term ‘State’ when used in such titles (but not in title XVI as in effect pursuant to such amendment after December 31, 1973) includes Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. Such term when used in title XX also includes the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Such term when used in title IV also includes American Samoa.”

[42 U.S.C. §1301(a)(1)]

Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Section 9 -102 (76)

(76) "State" means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

  Eisenberg v. Commercial Union Assurance Company, 189 F.Supp. 500 (1960)

(d) the word "States", as used in this section [Title 28 §1332 as amended in 1958] includes the Territories, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

It is to be noted that the statute differentiates between States of the United States and foreign states by the use of the capital S for the word when applied to a State of the United States."

Cherokee Nation v. The State of Georgia, 30 U.S. 1; 8 L.Ed. 25 (1831):

"The Cherokee Nation is not a foreign state, in the sense in which the term 'foreign state' is used in the Constitution of the United States."

"The Cherokees are a State."

"The acts of our government plainly recognize the Cherokee Nation as a State, and the courts are bound by those acts."

49 U.S.C. §13102:  Definitions

(18) State. - The term ''State'' means the 50 States of the United States and the District of Columbia.

26 U.S.C.  §6103(b)(5)

TITLE 26 > Subtitle F > CHAPTER 61 > Subchapter B > § 6103

§ 6103. Confidentiality and disclosure of returns and return information

(b) Definitions For purposes of this section—

(5) State The term “State” means—

(A) any of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Canal Zone, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and (B) for purposes of subsections (a)(2), (b)(4), (d)(1), (h)(4), and (p) any municipality—

(i) with a population in excess of 250,000 (as determined under the most recent decennial United States census data available),

(ii) which imposes a tax on income or wages, and

(iii) with which the Secretary (in his sole discretion) has entered into an agreement regarding disclosure.

U.S. v. Reese, 92 U.S. 214 (1875):

The word 'State' 'describes sometimes a people or community of individuals united more or less closely in political relations, inhabiting temporarily or permanently the same country; often it denotes only the country or territorial region inhabited by such a community; not unfrequently it is applied to the government under which the people live; at other times it represents the combined idea of people, territory, and government. It is not difficult to see, that, in all these senses, the primary conception is that of a people or community. The people, in whatever territory dwelling, either temporarily or permanently, and whether organized under a regular government or united by looser and less definite relations, constitute the State. . . . In the Constitution, the term 'State' most frequently expresses the combined idea just noticed, of people, territory, and government. A State, in the ordinary sense of the Constitution, is a political community of free citizens, occupying a territory of defined boundaries, organized under a government sanctioned and limited by a written constitution, and established by the consent of the governed. It is the union of such States under a common constitution which forms the distinct and greater political unit which that constitution designates as the United States, and makes of the people and States which compose it one people and one country.' Texas v. White, 7 Wall. 720, 721.

That the word 'State' is not confined in its meaning to the legislative power of a community is evident, not only from the authority just cited, but from a reference to the various places in which it is used in the Constitution of the United States. A few only of these will be referred to.

Words and Phrases, Vol. 40, p. 20:

United States

"The classical designation to clearly indicate the states as individual governmental entities making up the United Nation, dating form the Constitution and coming down through various acts of Congress and pronouncements of the courts, is the word "states".  Twin Falls County v. Hulbert, 156 P.2d 319, 324, 325, 66 Idaho 128.

"Generally the word "state" when used by court or Legislature [in federal statutes, for instance, of which the Internal Revenue Code is a part] denotes one of the members of the federal Union.  Twin Falls County v. Hulbert, 156 P.2d 319, 324, 235, 66 Idaho 128."

"The word "state" is generally used in connection with constitutional law in United States as meaning individual states making up the Union in contradistinction to United States as a nation, but United States is a "state" as such word is frequently used in international law, or to carry out legislative intent expressed in statute.  McLaughlin v. Poucher, 17 A.2d 767, 770, 127 Conn. 441."

Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901)

It is sufficient to observe in relation to these three fundamental instruments [Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, and the Treaty of Peace with Spain], that it can nowhere be inferred that the *251 territories were considered a part of the United States. The Constitution was created by the people of the United States, as a union of states, to be governed solely by representatives of the states; and even the provision relied upon here, that all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform ‘throughout the United States,’ is explained by subsequent provisions of the Constitution, that ‘no tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state,’ and ‘no preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.’ In short, the Constitution deals with states, their people, and their representatives.

 

[. . .]

 

"The earliest case is that of Hepburn v. Ellzey, 2 Cranch, 445, 2 L. ed. 332, in which this court held that, under that clause of the Constitution limiting the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States to controversies between citizens of different states, a citizen of the District of Columbia could not maintain an action in the circuit court of the United States. It was argued that the word 'state.' in that connection, was used simply to denote a distinct political society. 'But,' said the Chief Justice, 'as the act of Congress obviously used 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 , . . . and excludes from the term the signification attached to it by writers on the law of nations.' This case was followed in Barney v. Baltimore, 6 Wall. 280, 18 L. ed. 825, and quite recently in Hooe v. Jamieson, 166 U.S. 395 , 41 L. ed. 1049, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 596. The same rule was applied to citizens of territories in New Orleans v. Winter, 1 Wheat. 91, 4 L. ed. 44, in which an attempt was made to distinguish a territory from the District of Columbia. But it was said that 'neither of them is a state in the sense in which that term is used in the Constitution.' In Scott v. Jones, 5 How. 343, 12 L. ed. 181, and in Miners' Bank v. Iowa ex rel. District Prosecuting Attorney, 12 How. 1, 13 L. ed. 867, it was held that under the judiciary act, permitting writs of error to the supreme court of a state in cases where the validity of a state statute is drawn in question, an act of a territorial legislature was not within the contemplation of Congress."  

[Downes v. Bidwell, 182 U.S. 244 (1901)]

Judiciary Act of 1789:  "State"

The sentence found in the Historical and Revision Notes under 28 U.S.C. Chapter 5 say the following:

“Sections 81-131 of this chapter show the territorial composition of districts and divisions by counties as of January 1, 1945,”

This tells the reader that there is something to be learned in sections 81-131.  What is to be learned is the same thing that was presented in the Judiciary Act of 1789 in section two:

SEC . 2. And be it further enacted, That the United States shall be, and they hereby are divided into thirteen districts, to be limited and called as follows, to wit: one to consist of that part of the State of Massachusetts which lies easterly of the State of New Hampshire, and to be called Maine District; one to consist of the State of New Hampshire, and to be called New Hampshire District; one to consist of the remaining part of the State of Massachusetts, and to be called Massachusetts district; one to consist of the State of Connecticut, and to be called Connecticut District; one to consist of the State of New York, and to be called New York District; one to consist of the State of New Jersey, and to be called New Jersey District; one to consist of the State of Pennsylvania, and to be called Pennsylvania District; one to consist of the State of Delaware, and to be called Delaware District; one to consist of the State of Maryland, and to be called Maryland District; one to consist of the State of Virginia, except that part called the District of Kentucky, and to be called Virginia District; one to consist of the remaining part of the State of Virginia, and to be called Kentucky District; one to consist of the State of South Carolina, and to be called South Carolina District; and one to consist of the State of Georgia, and to be called Georgia District.   

The Judiciary Act of 1789 was enacted on September 24, 1789 when only 11 States had ratified this Constitution.  Notice, however, that the Act creates 13 districts.  The Maine District is created from part of the State of Massachusetts and the Kentucky District was created from the “remaining part of the State of Virginia.”  Kentucky became a State on June 1, 1792 and Maine was admitted into the Union on March 15, 1820.  These facts prove that the State of Massachusetts and the State of Virginia are something other than States even though the Judiciary Act of 1789 says they are part of the United States.

 Title 28 U.S.C. was enacted into positive law in 1948.  In order for the “judicial” law enacted by the Congress of the United States to be positive law, it had to conform to Section 2 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 and other “judicial” legislation.  The sentence: “Sections 81-131 of this chapter show the territorial composition of districts and divisions by counties as of January 1, 1945,” was added by the Law Revision Counsel so that it would conform to all prior statute law that concerned the federal judiciary and judicial procedure.

Albert J. Nock, America Mercury Magazine, march 1939:

"[T]he State's criminality is nothing new and nothing to be wondered at.  It began when the first predatory group of men clustered together and formed the State, and it will continue as long as the State exists in the world, because the State is fundamentally an anti-social institution, fundamentally criminal.  The idea that the State originated to serve any kind of social purpose is completely unhistorical. It originated in conquest and confiscation -- that is to say, in crime.  It originated for the purpose of maintaining the division of society into an owning-and-exploiting class and a propertyless dependent class -- that is, for a criminal purpose.  No State known to history originated in any other manner, or for any other purpose.  Like all predatory or parasitic institutions, its first instinct is that of self-preservation.  All its enterprises are directed first towards preserving its own life, and, second, towards increasing its own power and enlarging the scope of its own activity.  For the sake of this it will, and regularly does, commit any crime which circumstances make expedient." [Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945), Source: The Criminality of the State, America Mercury Magazine, March, 1939]

BACKGROUND ON "STATE" FROM THE PREFACE OF THE GREAT IRS HOAX:

State — in the context of federal statutes, federal court rulings, and this book means a federal State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Northern Marina Islands, and includes areas within the external boundaries of a state owned by or ceded to the United States of America.  Federal “States” are defined in 4 U.S.C. §110(d) and 26 U.S.C. §7701(a)(10).  In the context of the U.S. Constitution only, “State” means a sovereign “state” as indicated below.  The reason the constitution is different is because of who wrote it.  The states wrote it so they are capitalized.  Federal statutes are not written by the sovereign states so they use the lower case “state” to describe the sovereign 50 union states, which are foreign to the federal government and outside its territorial jurisdiction.

“It is to be noted that the statute differentiates between States of the United States and foreign states by the use of a capital S for the word when applied to a State of the United States”  Eisenberg v. Commercial Union Assurance Company, 189 F.Supp. 500 (1960)

state — in the context of federal statutes, federal court rulings, and this book means a sovereign state of the Union of America under the Constitution for the United States of America 1789-1791.  In the context of the U.S. Constitution only, “State” means a sovereign “state” as defined here.  Below is a further clarification of the meaning of “states” as defined by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of O’Donoghue v. United States, 289 U.S. 516 (1933), where they define what is not a “state”:

After an exhaustive review of the prior decisions of this court relating to the matter, the following propositions, among others, were stated as being established: 

'1. That the District of Columbia and the territories are not states within the judicial clause of the Constitution giving jurisdiction in cases between citizens of different states;

'2. That territories are not states within the meaning of Rev. St. 709, permitting writs of error from this court in cases where the validity of a state statute is drawn in question;

'3. That the District of Columbia and the territories are states as that word is used in treaties with foreign powers, with respect to the ownership, disposition, and inheritance of property;

'4. That the territories are not within the clause of the Constitution providing for the creation of a supreme court and such inferior courts as Congress may see fit to establish.'

Below is a summary of the meanings of “state” and “State” in the context of both federal and state laws:

Table 1: Summary of meaning of "state" and "State"

So what the above table clearly shows is that the word “State” in the context of federal statutes and regulations means (not includes!) federal States only under Title 48 of the U.S. Code[3], and these areas do not include any of the 50 union states.  This is true in most cases and especially in the Internal Revenue Code, but there are a few minor exceptions: For example in 40 U.S.C. §319c.  The word “State” in the context of federal statutes and regulations means one of the 50 union states, which are “foreign states”, and “foreign countries” with respect to the federal government as clearly explained later in section 5.2.11 of this book.  In the context of the above, a “Union State” means one of the 50 Union states of the United States* (the country, not the federal United States**).  The capitalization of the word "State" therefore always depends on the context in which it is used.

"Text, without context, is error."

____________________________

[1] See California Revenue and Taxation Code, section 6017 at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=rtc&group=06001-07000&file=6001-6024

[2] See California Revenue and Taxation Code, section 17018 at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=rtc&group=17001-18000&file=17001-17039.1

[3] See http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/48/

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