The primary first-level political division of the United States is the
state. There are 50 states, which are bound together in a
union. Each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a defined geographic territory, and shares its
sovereignty with the
United States federal government. According to numerous decisions of the
United States Supreme Court, the 50 individual states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions.
[1] The states are not administrative divisions of the country, in that their powers and responsibilities are in no way assigned to them from above by federal legislation or the Constitution; rather they exercise all powers of government not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution.