Slight of hand, Non... they petition for statehood, once granted, they are on equal footing, unless you can demonstrate that the Constitution says otherwise.
Until granted they are not states. So they are, in effect, created by the other states by a vote in Congress.
...they are on equal footing, unless you can demonstrate that the Constitution says otherwise.
No, they are entitled to all the rights and subject to the same restrictions as the other states. And the original 13 states accepted the same restrictions as those state being admitted later. And regardless of what they may have believed in their ratification documents, those documents do not supercede the Constitution. And unilateral secession is not a power granted to the states.