1595: States that are Commonwealths Apr 27, 2019

The United States of America is made up of states and territories, but both of these are also sometimes commonwealths. There is no legal distinction between states and commonwealths in the US, four states, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia are classified as commonwealths; three of those were grandfathered in from when it was a British colony, and Kentucky retained the name when it split from Virginia. Today, it is mostly to connote a closer tie to the former British legal tradition and early republicanism. This nomenclature is not the same when it comes to the commonwealths in the US that are not also states.

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