[ShadowAce]

No, Texas could divide itself into as many as 5 states but there is no provision for secession from the union.

OK--maybe I'm just dense when it comes to this, but I have what I think is a very basic question.

Once a state like Texas declares it is seceding, then laws of the existing Union immediately have no effect in Texas. Thus, the argument about whether it is "legal" to secede is non-existent, as the laws "being broken" will be existing in a different country and have no bearing at all in the new state.

How am I incorrect here?

[Publius]

Federalism: Yesterday and Today

This provides the historical background to your question about unilateral secession.

[Midwesterner53]

No Texas laws would be broken but many US laws would be. The Supreme Court ruled after the Civil War that secession is unconstitutional. What if the feds said, ok Texas, you can go but not another federal dollar goes to Texas including social security payments, welfare, military retirements, education funds, nothing! Could Texas take up the slack of it’s residents and others wanting to move there?

[Political Junkie Too]

Isn't that like a husband declaring he's divorced from his wife, but the wife says they are still married and the county only has a marriage license but no divorce decree in their records?

-PJ