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The BIG question lately - CAN STATES SECEDE?
discussion

Posted on 04/17/2009 10:17:36 AM PDT by RED SOUTH

Article VII sets out the provision for original ratification, and that Article IV empowers Congress to admit new States, but that no provision of the Constitution authorizes a state to leave the Union or bars it from doing so. The constitution does not say anything about states leaving.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cwii; statesrights; texas
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To: RED SOUTH
Despite their rhetoric about the permanence and indestructibility of the Union, both Lincoln in his First Inaugural, and the Supreme Court in Texas v. White, strongly implied that it would be possible for one or more states to leave the Union with the consent of the Union as a whole.

As did James Madison. I think that the implication is that a state may leave by the same manner as states join - a simple majority vote in both Houses of Congress. No super majority, no amendment, just a vote.

21 posted on 04/17/2009 10:25:28 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: JaneNC
Texas is the only state that can secede.

Doubtful.

22 posted on 04/17/2009 10:26:00 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: RED SOUTH
Does not, then, the 10th Amendment kick in? Saying that any rights not enumerated in the Constitution are left TO THE STATES?

Meaning, the States have a right to secede.

23 posted on 04/17/2009 10:26:44 AM PDT by caddie ("Every cat is a masterpiece." -- Leonardo da Vinci)
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To: RED SOUTH
Hamilton and Madison hoped secession would never happen, but they never denied that it was a right and a practical possibility.

But the never said that the decision to leave could be made unilaterally.

24 posted on 04/17/2009 10:26:59 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: RED SOUTH

If Texas secedes, will the Feds come and try to force them back into the United States?


25 posted on 04/17/2009 10:27:16 AM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion (Be prepared for tough times. FReepmail me to learn about our survival thread!)
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To: RED SOUTH

I think far too many forget our history, not just in Texas, but also in the United States.

See tagline.


26 posted on 04/17/2009 10:27:25 AM PDT by SouthTexas (When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people.....)
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To: RED SOUTH
The constitution does not say anything about states leaving.

Indeed it does:

Amendment 10 - The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

27 posted on 04/17/2009 10:27:53 AM PDT by Romulus ("Ira enim viri iustitiam Dei non operatur")
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To: RED SOUTH

We have a nation here. It is going through problems right now. And it bothers me some of the tactics that are being used in reaction to those problems.

I live in California. California has problems. And because of those problems many of my fellow citizens moved out of the state. I don’t want people to take this personally, but isn’t that cutting and running? Is that how we turn things around? Hell no.

When people run from problems, those problems flourish. And when one state goes south, it affects other states.

Right now we have talk of states pulling out of the union. Is that really what we have come to? Is that really the future we see for our beloved nation, surrendering vast areas of our nation to our enemies?

Whatever happened to preaching our values to the American Citizen and winning them back over? Whatever happened to telling the public education system it isn’t going to propagandize our children on our tax dollars? Whatever happened to telling the government that it isn’t going to get away with flood groups like ACORN with our tax dollars so they can carry out political activity? Whatever happened to demanding, not asking that our rights be respected?

What bothers me, is that we are backing ourselves into a corner by choice, making smaller the base of our operations. Is that really what our goal should be?

Folks, our founding fathers didn’t pick one state and defend it. They worked within the full thirteen colonies and defended the whole rather than surrender to a superior force?

What is the cut and run stuff? What is the secession stuff?

Surrender? No way...


28 posted on 04/17/2009 10:27:54 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Pres__ent Obama's own grandmother says he was born in Kenya. She was there.)
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To: MS from the OC
I’m not a Constitutional Scholar, but when I was in school, I was taught that both California and Texas had the right to secede from the union. This right was incorporated into the treaty between the California Republic and the US when California joined the union. Texas is in a similar situation as the only other nation to voluntarily join the US.

For that to be true would mean that those states have a right denied to every other state - a situation that nothing in the Constitution supports. It also ignores the fact that both Vermont and Hawaii were also nations before they became states.

29 posted on 04/17/2009 10:28:34 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: RED SOUTH
Sure they can secede...there's a specific course of action that would allow them to do so.

It's called "war", and it's been implemented in the past.

30 posted on 04/17/2009 10:29:21 AM PDT by Fedupwithit (This is it? This has where "progress" has taken us?)
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To: SwankyC
Anyone care to guess whether or not 3/4th of the states in this country are more conservative (well, republican) or more liberal communist?

Based on the last election I'd say they aren't.

31 posted on 04/17/2009 10:29:26 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: jalisco555

“Ummm, didn’t we settle this question, oh, around 144 years ago?”

Maybe for you authoritarian statists. :)


32 posted on 04/17/2009 10:30:25 AM PDT by dljordan
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To: RED SOUTH
The BIG question lately - CAN STATES SECEDE?

This question was answered on a Palm Sunday back in 1865...and the South suffered a cruel occupation reconstruction because of it.

33 posted on 04/17/2009 10:30:50 AM PDT by meandog (There are bad no dogs, only bad owners--the only good bad owner is one mauled by a good bad dog!)
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To: JaneNC; ansel12

ansell is right.

There is nothing concrete in the annexation agreement that permits Texas to secede. We did, however, reserve the right to separate into as many as four additional states.

We also kept possession of all our public lands — they were not ceded to the Union.

There’s another issue that some have debated, and that is whether the annexation agreement of 1845 was nullified after secession and readmission after the Civil War. It is possible that the post-war readmission agreement would override the previous agreement of 1845.

I noted the poll that Drudge posted that 75% of Texans would vote against secession. I think that is true, myself included — as of TODAY.

The question is how far Big O will try to push us in the future and what the breaking point might be.


34 posted on 04/17/2009 10:31:02 AM PDT by Jedidah
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To: Non-Sequitur

You are aware we have an electoral college aren’t you? Yea, the President wasn’t elected by 3/4ths of the states.


35 posted on 04/17/2009 10:31:19 AM PDT by SwankyC (Please stand by - The Patriot Act can and will be used against all of you right wing extremists.)
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To: jalisco555

“A question, settled by force of arms, remains forever unsettled.”


36 posted on 04/17/2009 10:32:42 AM PDT by Terabitten (To all RINOs: You're expendable. Sarah isn't.)
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To: Big_Monkey

We’re painted as whack-jobs no matter what we do. Your strategy of trying to get in the good graces of Jon Stewart so he doesn’t call us mean names is a prescription for getting steamrolled.


37 posted on 04/17/2009 10:32:51 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
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To: massgopguy
Nothing prohibits them from leaving. They just can’t form a confederation.

Once a state leaves or is allowed to leave, and each state becomes a sovereign country in its own right, they would be free to do as they wish.
38 posted on 04/17/2009 10:32:58 AM PDT by adorno (Where is Branch 4?)
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To: RED SOUTH

Amendment X - Powers not specifically delegated to the Federal Government are reserved to the States and People (paraphrase)

If there is not an article delegating the power to the Federal Government to prevent a State from leaving, then that power doesn’t exist.

Too bad Lincoln couldn’t comprehend that.


39 posted on 04/17/2009 10:33:16 AM PDT by Abundy
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To: jalisco555
Ummm, didn’t we settle this question, oh, around 144 years ago?

Is that when history stopped happening?

40 posted on 04/17/2009 10:34:00 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard
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