Posted on 06/20/2022 12:42:25 PM PDT by DFG
Texas Republicans want to hold a referendum next year to decide whether or not the state should secede from the U.S.
The party charges the state has taken its right to self-govern and calls for secession.
The demand was part of the party platform Republicans voted on at their state convention this weekend, where they also formally rejected President Joe Biden's election in 2020 as legitimate.
Under a section titled 'State Sovereignty,' the platform states: 'Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government. Therefore, federally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified.
'Texas retains the right to secede from the United States, and the Texas Legislature should be called upon to pass a referendum consistent thereto.'
Texas has long pushed an independent movement, called 'Texit.'
After the area declared independence from Mexico in 1836, it was a sovereign state for nine years before it was annexed by the United States in 1845. There have been multiple secession movement since then.
Legally Texas cannot secede from the union. There has been a myth that it can because of the way it was annexed but the Congressional order of annexation merely stated Texas could - at a future date - divide itself into five states. It says nothing about leaving the union.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Although the thought is intriguing, that’s all it is ... a though. Just another round of symbolism over substance.
“Texas can make it without the United States, but the United States cannot make it without Texas”
Was trying to get that one quote in.
1861 to 1865.
Not really—The total number goes down, but so does the requirement for winning.
“As things currently stand, we do NOT have a functioning Constitution and have not had one for some time. Please show me where I might be mistaken on this.”
What are you, some kind of clown? The Constitution is just fine. IT functions as it was intended. The problem is with those who misinterpret it or intentionally mis-use it.
You really do believe I am Thick As A Brick don't you. While I realize I am not the smartest person to ever walk this earth, I think I do pretty well in discussions. 🙂
But yes, I meant were there any nukes within the borders of Texas. I didn't think I needed to get that specific, as nukes are all owned by the U.S. Government. Even a dummy like me knows that. 🙂
I am still against any involvement by our country in the Ukraine/Russia conflict, though. For all the reasons we have already discussed. We have too many problems at home, and Biden is a major one who probably can't wipe himself, let alone lead a successful campaign against Russia. Neither is anyone in his administration capable of leading the US to victory in this proxy war. Besides that, it is Europe's problem and as always they just let us take the lead and provide the majority of support of the effort. While they offer as little support as possible, and cheat when necessary. As far as I can see, all we are really accomplishing there is enriching Zelenskyy monetarily. Our weapons are being sold on the black market, from reports I have been seeing. But we won't get back into that discussion. Because now I have really steered off the topic we were discussing. 🙂
I seriously doubt that it would go that way, again.
Oh. So everything is just hunky dorey, huh?
“I didn’t think I needed to get that specific, as nukes are all owned by the U.S. Government.”
Well, one would hope.
“Oh. So everything is just hunky dorey, huh?”
With the Constitution? Pretty much so. I mean, there are a couple items I’d change if I were King and had the authority and power to do so; but our Constitution addressed that, too, and left it to the People and their representatives and the States to make those changes; which is as it should be.
Well, that's true. I should have said legally, as you are so technical. But I like technical, that way there is no mistaking intention of statement. I try to remember that I need to be very specific with you. No promises though. Sometimes I am just in a hurry. 🙂
Thats why I want DeSantis to stay through his 2nd term... too much on the line for him to leave things unfinished.
I guess that the complete lack of adherence and deference to our Constitution and our Bill of Rights by the current occupiers of our Nation’s Capitol and SCOTUS has escaped your notice?
“I should have said legally, as you are so technical. But I like technical, that way there is no mistaking intention of statement. I try to remember that I need to be very specific with you.”
That will work.
“I guess that the complete lack of adherence and deference to our Constitution and our Bill of Rights by the current occupiers of our Nation’s Capitol and SCOTUS has escaped your notice?”
Did you even read my previous comment? I said the constitution has been misinterpreted and misused. And that is not unique to just this administration.
In the words of a greater man than both of us “Either we hang together or for surely we will hang separately''. Too many have fought bled and died to make this one nation, indivisible. We went at each others throats for four of the bloodiest years in Americas history and damn near lost everything. Not again. If one state goes , then another. I don't want to live in a Balkanized country.
Show me in the Constitution where it states that a State cannot secede.
14th Amendment
No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States....
Any Texas claim of secession would terminate the privileges and immunities of all citizens of the United States resident in Texas.
Texas Constitution 1868
Article IBill of Rights
That the heresies of nullification and secession, which brought the country to grief, may be eliminated from future political discussion....
As a legal issue, it hasn't really been addressed by SCOTUS.
Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700, 724-725 (1869)
It is needless to discuss, at length, the question whether the right of a State to withdraw from the Union for any cause, regarded by herself as sufficient, is consistent with the Constitution of the United States.The Union of the States never was a purely artificial and arbitrary relation. It began among the Colonies, and grew out of common origin, mutual sympathies, kindred principles, similar interests, and geographical relations. It was confirmed and strengthened by the necessities of war, and received definite form and character and sanction from the Articles of Confederation. By these, the Union was solemnly declared to “be perpetual.” And when these Articles were found to be inadequate to the exigencies of the country, the Constitution was ordained “to form a more perfect Union”. It is difficult to convey the idea of indissoluble unity more clearly than by these words. What can be indissoluble if a perpetual Union, made more perfect, is not? ... The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States
The Court may have unloaded a pile of bunk as a holding, but it did address the matter of secession, and stated it was not constitutional.
Here is another interpretation by James Madison.
LETTER FROM MR. MADISON ON THE RIGHT OF SECESSION.
Madison argues that the ratification of the Constitution was a compact between the states, and as such, each state has equal say in all matters. When one state declares itself to secede unilaterally, it says that its own decision is elevated above all the rest.Madison then suggests that if a state declares its own desire supreme over the others, then that right extends to all the other states too. That means that if a state has a right to secede from the others, then the others have the right to secede from it. In other words, a body of states has the right to oust a state against its wishes, which is a dangerous precedent.
James Madison to Daniel Webster
The argument here is that when the states ratified the Constitution, that conferred United States citizenship on the citizens of the several states (I thought the Declaration of Independence did that) with all the rights and powers laid out in the Constitution. Once given, a governor or legislature does not have the right to strip its state citizens of their citizenship in the United States.
-PJ
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