Organic act

In United States law, an organic act is an act of the United States Congress that establishes a territory of the United States and specifies how it is to be governed[1], or an agency to manage certain federal lands. In the absence of an organic law a territory is classified as unorganized.

Northwest Territory of the United States, 1787
This 1856 map shows slave states (gray), free states (pink), U.S. territories (green), and Kansas in center (white).

The first such act was the Northwest Ordinance, passed in 1787 by the U.S. Congress of the Confederation (under the Articles of Confederation, predecessor of the United States Constitution). The Northwest Ordinance created the Northwest Territory in the land west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River and set the pattern of development that was followed for all subsequent territories. The Northwest Territory covered more than 260,000 square miles and included all of the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the northeastern part of Minnesota.

The District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 incorporated Washington, D.C. and placed it under the exclusive control of the United States Congress.

The Organic Act for the Territory of New Mexico was part of the Compromise of 1850, passed September 9, 1850. Primarily concerned with slavery, the act organized New Mexico as a territory, with boundaries including the areas now embraced in New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Colorado.

List of organic acts

Territorial organic acts have included, in chronological order):

Areas now part of a U.S. state or D.C.:

Current overseas territories of the United States, known as insular areas:

Location of the insular areas:
  The 50 states and the District of Columbia
  Incorporated, unorganized territory
  Unincorporated territory with Commonwealth status
  Unincorporated, organized territory
  Unincorporated, unorganized territory

The Philippines:

Others:

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See also

References
  1. "What is ORGANIC ACT? definition of ORGANIC ACT (Black's Law Dictionary)". The Law Dictionary. November 4, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
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