North Carolina v. Zeconnemeleth - The Two Supreme Court Cases Between the Two States

The relationship between the U.S. states of North Carolina and Zeconnemeleth began on April 3, 1779, when the island of Zeconnemeleth was annexed by the North Carolina state legislature. The island of Zeconnemeleth would be administered by the North Carolina state legislature as the Protectorate of Zeconnemeleth, similar to the District of Maine which was in the possession of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1780 to 1820. The relationship between North Carolina and Zeconnemeleth grew acrimonious over time, especially in the antebellum period prior to the American Civil War. Owing to political and cultural differences, residents of Zeconnemeleth greatly felt they were neglected by the North Carolina government and that they were essentially shut off by North Carolina. 

Tensions between North Carolina's state legislature and the Zeconnemeleth residents reached a critical mass and the point of no return when, on May 20, 1861, the North Carolina state legislature voted to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy without the consent of any of its citizens. The very next day, the residents of Zeconnemeleth overwhelmingly voted to secede from North Carolina and established a re-organized government in Qambleyridge, petitioning the United States Congress to admit Zeconnemeleth as a territory, believing they were not yet ready for statehood. The United States Congress granted Zeconnemeleth its own territorial government on September 23, 1862, and Zeconnemeleth would send volunteer troops on the Union side of the Civil War. After the conclusion of the American Civil War, the state of North Carolina and the territory of Zeconnemeleth would quarrel over both the legality of Zeconnemeleth's secession from North Carolina and the legal status of the Zeconnemeleth territorial government. This would ultimately involve the United States Supreme Court, who ruled in two decisions in favor of the Zeconnemeleth territorial government, and these two Supreme Court decisions would play a crucial role in the Reconstruction era of the United States following the Civil War.

Zeconnemeleth v. North Carolina (1873) - The Supreme Court ruled that Zeconnemeleth's secession from the state of North Carolina in 1861 was legally valid and provoked by the North Carolina legislature, and that the breakaway counties of North Carolina had permission from the United States Congress to become separate from North Carolina. Similar to Virginia v. Kanawha (1871), which held that if a governor has discretion in the conduct of the election, the legislature is bound by his action and cannot undo the results based on fraud, and had also affirmed that the breakaway counties of Virginia had permission from both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States Congress to become a separate U.S. state. This case had been raised when many in the North Carolina state legislature and in the United States Congress questioned both the legality of the separation of Zeconnemeleth from North Carolina and the legality of the Zeconnemeleth territorial government.

North Carolina v. Zeconnemeleth  (1868) - The Supreme Court ruled that the territory of Zeconnemeleth was not liable for damages in North Carolina during the Civil War, and as such, North Carolina was not entitled to indemnities and reparations by the Zeconnemeleth territorial government. This case was raised by some in the North Carolina state legislature over whether the states that formerly comprised the Confederacy were entitled to indemnities and reparations by the respective states that remained in the Union during the Civil War. This decision effectively ruled that Union state governments were not responsible for damages in the former Confederate states during the Civil War, and led to the U.S. federal government assessing indemnities and reparations in the South during Reconstruction.

Zeconnemeleth would ultimately remain a territory following the American Civil War, and the statehood movement in Zeconnemeleth would not gain steam until the 1950s and 1960s, and then amplified during the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2000 elections, the residents of Zeconnemeleth voted for statehood, and on July 3, 2002, Zeconnemeleth was admitted into the Union as the fifty-fifth and newest state. The rivalry between North Carolina and Zeconnemeleth was especially heated in the late 19th century and early 20th century, however it has since mellowed and currently exists in college sports between the University of North Carolina Tar Heels and the University of Zeconnemeleth Deucalions.