>and dare them to do something about it.
Well, that depends. - The President can order the Texas National Guard to take the governor into custody and the Federal courts can handcuff the Texas legislature as well.
To stand up to that threat, the Governor must have high US Armed Forces officers & commanders - who are the officers in the Texas National Guard - willing to disregard their oaths to the Federal Officials & willfully disobey Federal orders.
In addition, he would have to have the near total willingness of all state and local police forces to resist federal officers with lethal force.
In short, what I am saying is that he must have the preconditions needed for armed secession in place and THAT is nearly impossible these days.
Of course it would not come to that - The state would back down just like George Wallace did in the face of National Guard troops in Alabama.
The only things that he could do when push comes to shove is play political capital.
You’re missing one thing. Texas actually has its own military, separate from the National Guard. It’s called the Texas State Guard.
And it should also be pointed out that the Mexicans thought the same thing in 1836... Do you remember how that worked out for them? :P
Total Military Recruits: Army, Navy, Air Force (most recent) by state
See here :
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/mil_tot_mil_rec_arm_nav_air_for-recruits-army-navy-air-force
TEXAS TOPS THEM ALL !!
It might come to that, and the outcome would be unpredictable (no, I don't predict violence or secession... quite the opposite). The governor could come out of such a confrontation as the next president of the US.
Seriously, can you imagine the political fallout of a president arresting a governor over an unconstitutional carbon law? Not voting rights, or education rights, but carbon law?
The governor should allow himself to be arrested, play it for all its worth, and by the time its over the president would be repudiated even by his own party. It just takes guts, which as you say is typically in short supply. So it probably wouldn’t happen.
But a governor with a little guts and a flair for the theatrical could easily win such a confrontation and make the president look like the fool he is.
The President can order the Texas National Guard to take the governor into custody and the Federal courts can handcuff the Texas legislature as well.
Some might call that casus belli or the 150th Anniversary observance of the Battle of Fort Sumter. If a handfull of illiterate ragheads in Afghanistan can stymie the US Military, imagine what pissed off Texans with some serious firepower could do.
Remember, Texas has a coast and a well established and efficient multi-billion dollar international smuggling infrastructure.
>>The President can order the Texas National Guard to take the governor into custody ........<<
My understanding of a (state name) National Guard is that they are under the control of the (state name) Governor and when the President wishes to order them to do something, the President first requests that the (state name) Governor release them to permit their commander accept a command from the President.
RE: “the Governor must have high US Armed Forces officers & commanders - who are the officers in the Texas National Guard - willing to disregard their oaths to the Federal Officials & willfully disobey Federal orders.”
I was under the impression that Federal troops swore an oath to the US Constitution, not to Der Feurer?
Are all State NG units branches of the Wermacht now?
Those officers swore no oaths of loyalty to any federal officials. It depends upon their perception of the Constitutionality of the federal actions, which they DID swear an oath to.