Replies

By seceding, the states are asserting that the supremacy clause is null and void, since they are making a law which is superior to the constitution.

You still don't understand. Nothing prohibits secession, or even sovereign state laws. Unless the Constitution somewhere is delegated the power over secession (or anything else), the US Constitution cannot prohibit secession. Read Hamilton in Federalist 84 for a clue about excersing powers not delegated. He (and other federalists) argued against a Bill of Rights, simply because the federal government had not been delegated the powers over religion, speech, RKBA, individual liberties, civil cases, jury trials, search & seizure &c.

Not to mention the fact that they are also asserting a sovereignty not granted them under the constitution.

Read amendment X. What part of it do you not understand? The states retain EVERYTHING no delegated nor prohibited. The supremacy clause does not delegate or prohibit any powers - it just recognizes that where a power has been delegated, the Constitution is supreme.

You still don't understand. Nothing prohibits secession, or even sovereign state laws. Unless the Constitution somewhere is delegated the power over secession (or anything else), the US Constitution cannot prohibit secession. Read Hamilton in Federalist 84 for a clue about excersing powers not delegated. He (and other federalists) argued against a Bill of Rights, simply because the federal government had not been delegated the powers over religion, speech, RKBA, individual liberties, civil cases, jury trials, search & seizure &c.

No, it is you who don't understand. I'm not talking about non-delegated powers - which you keep coming back to. The delegated powers of the constitution cannot be overthrown by state laws. Any laws made by a state (including secession ordinances) are subordinate to the constitution. The individual states could not legally secede because they were still bound by the U.S. Constitution as being the supreme law of the land. Every state, in their secession ordinances recognized that they had no sovereignty under the Constitution.

They claimed that they could get their sovereignty back because state laws trumped constitutional ones.