I thought the civil war settled the question once and for all. The federal government rules supreme. Once you allow one state to secede where does it end? It ain’t gonna happen, such attempts will bring nothing but grief. Americans have to stop trying all these bizarro ways of fixing the washington problem. The problem lies there and that’s where it needs to be changed.
Is this a trick question, or is the answer the obvious one: liberty?
Obama ain't no Lincoln and I don't think that the military is his friend.
There’s a huge difference between the concept of state sovereignty and state secession.
A state can definitely take steps to reestablish its constitutionally defined sovereignty vis-a-viz the federal government without seceeding from the union.
No different from telling a HOA that is overstepping its legal bounds, “Get off my property.” Doesn’t mean you’re leaving the neighborhood or the HOA. You’re just reestablishing your property rights as defined in the controlling legal document.
Secession is the *violent* method.
I read this in a different way than you do. Once you don't allow one state to secede, where does it end? It ends in a centralized unified state tyranny.
Secession is not a good idea (been there, done that, failed miserably), but what does and will work is a re-establishment of the proper relationship between the citizens of our Republic and the Federal Government, and between the states and that government.
As a practical matter, this means that even while the Federal government has supremacy in enumerated functions for each of its branches, states through their elected representatives may refuse to acknowledge powers claimed by the Federal government that are forbidden by the Constitution or on which the Constitution is silent. The Supreme Court rules in such interstitial areas as to where the proper boundaries of Federal power lie.
Texas and maybe Louisiana decide to secede, and the marxists in DC issue orders to bring them back.
The US Military instead rounds up the "Congressional Progressive Caucus" and puts them on a plane to Cuba.
Provisional military government for 6 months, then new elections for all congressional seats and the WH, incumbents need not apply.
Only tax paying citizens and veterans are enfranchised in the new Republic.
All amendments other than the original bill of rights are repealed.
"Dueling" legalized within the Washington DC limits.
Problem solved
secede? nullifying is not secession.
The powers not delegated to the federal government belong to the states or to the people.
Its that simple.
(The issue of slavery *is* settled. Not by the barrel of a gun, but by the common consent of free men. As was going to happen without the war.)
“I thought the civil war settled the question once and for all. The federal government rules supreme.”
The people, the states and the nation existed before the federal government. Why do people not understand this? The Federal Government is a creation, not a creator. The civil war settled nothing.
Help me out here. I was under the impression that prior to the Civil War, the right of States to secede was arguable, but generally you could make a good case for its legality, but after the Civil War, amendments were made to the Constitution to completely assert that the United States was one indisoluble union.
Is that right?