Oklahoma Enabling Act

Oklahoma Enabling Act

Other short titles	Statehood Act of 1906
Long title	An Act to enable the people of Oklahoma and of the Indian Territory to form a constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States; and to enable the people of New Mexico and of Arizona to form a constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States.
Nicknames	Oklahoma Enabling Act of 1906
Enacted by	the 59th United States Congress
Effective	June 16, 1906
Citations
Public law	59-234
Statutes at Large	34 Stat. 267
Codification
Titles amended	43 U.S.C.: Public Lands
U.S.C. sections created	43 U.S.C. ch. 22 § 944
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 12707 by Edward L. Hamilton (R–MI) on January 22, 1906 Committee consideration by House Committee on Territories, Senate Committee on Territories Passed the House on January 25, 1906 (195-150) Passed the Senate on March 9, 1906 (42-29) Reported by the joint conference committee on June 13, 1906; agreed to by the House on June 14, 1906 (Agreed) and by the Senate on June 15, 1906 (Agreed) Signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 16, 1906

The Enabling Act of 1906, in its first part, empowered the people residing in Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory to elect delegates to a state constitutional convention and subsequently to be admitted to the union as a single state.

The act, in its second part, also enabled the people of New Mexico Territory and of Arizona Territory to form a constitution and State government and be admitted into the Union, requiring a referendum to determine if both territories should be admitted as a single state.

The Oklahoma Organic Act of 1890 contemplated admitting Oklahoma and Indian Territories as a single state. However, residents of Indian Territory sponsored a bill to admit Indian Territory as the State of Sequoyah, which was defeated in the U. S. Congress in 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt then proposed a compromise that would join Indian Territory with Oklahoma Territory to form a single state. This resulted in passage of the Oklahoma Enabling Act, which President Roosevelt signed June 16, 1906.

The Act included several other requirements for the Oklahoma Constitution:

The constitution was written to meet these requirements. President Roosevelt proclaimed Oklahoma a state on November 16, 1907.

The requirement to keep Guthrie as the State's temporary capital was challenged in court after Oklahoma City, Oklahoma won the election and the capital was moved prematurely. Coyle v. Smith was the US Supreme Court Case that helped define the equal footing doctrine.

On December 29, 1910, the state of Oklahoma enacted a statute which removed the state capital from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. W.H. Coyle, owner of large property interests in Guthrie, sued the state of Oklahoma, arguing that the move was performed in violation of the state constitution's acceptance of the terms of Congress's enabling act.

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