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Unilateral secession is not a constitutional process. Texas v White confirms that point of view. Professor Williams may be a fine economist, but he is not a very good historian. His article has been thoroughly debunked here at FR, and continues to be each time it rears its ugly head.

Garbage. Texas v. White was ruled against secession, but beyond that point it has precious little going for it. The case's internal logic is a nightmare of inconsistency and contradiction placing it in that category of truly bad and poorly written cases where you will find such names as Plessy and Roe.

Besides, given the timing of that case do you honestly think that the supreme court could have ruled any other way? Had they done so they would have completely undermined everything the yankees spent the last four years fighting for and potentially even risked reigniting the war. So instead they draft up a weak and self-referentially inconsistent damnatio memoriae on the confederacy to push the issue under the carpet. As to Williams being "debunked" here at FR, I certainly haven't seen it and if that is to be taken as a claim that you or any other member of the Wlat brigade has done the "debunking" it may be dismissed as a matter of absurdity...unless by "debunking" you mean making up court cases, amending existing rulings, trumping up false charges against harassed judges, making up non-existant battles, and changing the name of units in the federal army into "militias" on a whim as it suits the convenience of your desired position.

ping to 173

As you are aware, there are other cases, some of which were Reconstruction era, and some which came later, which comfirm the fundamentals of Texas v White with regard to the legality of secession.

There has never been a successful, lawful, secession in the United States.