[inquest]

You're still avoiding my question. Yeah, I know the court said that states could secede with the consent of the other states (what orifice they pulled that one out of, I don't know, but it sure sounds to me like they're acknowledging that states have a certain sovereign character after all. Hmm...). My question remains, what if there had been support for the legality of unilateral secession? Could you picture the courts acknowledging that in the political climate of 1869?

[Non-Sequitur]

I'm not avoiding anything. I cannot imagine the court comming to that conclusion in 1869 because I cannot imagine how they find such a right to unilateral secession in the Constitution. If such a right did exist then the whole war would have been avoided. Using your analogy then you might as well say that the court could never and would never overturn the right to an abortion for all the turmoil it would cause.