Can Texas or any other state actually secede from the US?

“All my exes live in Texas…”

Gwen Baumgardner: That’s what Americans would be singing if Texas ever seceded.

SOME TEXANs have BEEN THREATENING IT FOR YEARS. BUT CAN THEY REALLY BREAK UP WITH US?

Daniel Miller: “Is it possible? I would say that it’s, it’s beyond possible.”

Gwen Baumgardner: DANIEL MILLER is WITH THE TEXAS NATIONALIST MOVEMENT.

An organization PETITIONING FOR A STATEWIDE SECESSION VOTE IN 2022.   

AND IN NEW HAMPSHIRE – THIS  LAWMAKER IS PROPOSING A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT THAT WOULD ALSO PUT SECESSION ON THE midterm BALLOT.

FIRST THINGS FIRST  -IS IT EVEN LEGAL FOR A STATE TO SECEDE.

Daniel Farber: “Let me begin with a one word answer. No.”  

Gwen Baumgardner: That’s CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR DAN FARBER. 

HE POINTS TO THE  1869 RULING ON TEXAS V. WHITE, WHICH REAFFIRMED AMERICA AS AN ‘INDESTRUCTIBLE UNION’ FROM WHICH A STATE CAN’T SECEDE.

BUT IF A STATE WANTS OUT –  DOES THAT STATE  REALLY CARE WHAT THE SUPREME COURT SAYS? 

SECESSION AUTHOR RICHARD KRIETNER WEIGHS IN.

Richard Kreitner: “The reason why the union stuck together was not because of an 1869 Supreme Court case four years later, but because the North beat the South in a military, you know, trial by combat.”

Gwen Baumgardner: WE SHOULD PROBABLY DISCUSS THAT ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. THE CIVIL WAR.  IT WAS DEADLY, UGLY, AND… NO ONE GOT TO LEAVE IN THE END.

IN A LETTER, THE LATE JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA WROTE… ‘If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede.’

WHILE THE U.S. CONSTITUTION DOESN’T explicitly address secession, 

IT FORBIDS STATES FROM MAKING ANY LAWS THAT WOULD LIMIT A PERSON’S AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. 

Farber: “The 14th amendment makes it clear that that at least as after 1866, that it’s the other way around. We’re Americans first, and only citizens of a state second.

Gwen Baumgardner: SO TO BE CLEAR, HISTORICAL AND LEGAL PRECEDENT ARE NOT ON THE SIDE OF AMERICAN SECESSIONIST MOVEMENTS . 

BUT THERE’S A STRONG ARGUMENT THAT IF SECESSION MADE IT ON A STATE BALLOT AND THERE WERE ENOUGH VOTES, A STATE WOULD JUST… LEAVE. 

STOP PAYING FEDERAL TAXES. ESTABLISH THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT. THE WHOLE SHEBANG.

Kreitner: “It’s not clear to me at all, that if Texas seceded, the Biden administration is going to send an army to Texas, I mean, that that’d be absurd. I live in New York. I’m not going to war to keep Texas in the union.”

Gwen Baumgardner: HE BELIEVES SECESSION WILL HAPPEN, IT’S JUST A MATTER OF WHERE AND WHEN. 

And WHILE WE *have SEEN successful BREAKUPS in other parts of the world…it’s rarely a smooth transition. 

Farber: “It would make Brexit look like a picnic. It really would.“

Gwen Baumgardner: HE SAYS LEGAL ROADBLOCKS ASIDE, THIS  HYPOTHETICAL DIVORCE WOULD BE A LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE…MILITARY, BORDER POLICY, SOCIAL SECURITY. 

TED CRUZ: “If there comes a point where it’s hopeless, then i say we take NASA we take the military, we take the oil…” (audience laughs) 

Gwen Baumgardner: JOKES ASIDE, LIKE ANY DIVORCE SETTLEMENT, THERE WOULD BE A LOT TO WORK OUT. 

NOT TO MENTION, CONVINCING SEVERAL MILLION PEOPLE AT THE POLLS.  

MILLER: “But those are things that are not insurmountable.”

Gwen Baumgardner: ARE YOU CONVINCED? COULD THE LONE STAR STATE REALLY GO IT ALONE?

LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW…AND BE SURE TO RATE THIS STORY ON THE STRAIGHT ARROW BIAS METER.