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"My personal opinion is that if the Constitution does not explicitly prohibit something then it is reserved to the States or the people respectively. But that is just my opinion and opinions are all we have."

From the Articles of Confederation:

"II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.

It's not your opinion nor mine, but was to be the guaranteed right of each sovereign state of the Confederation. The SCOTUS opinion against secession was made as such because their opinions were bought by the FedGov. They never really gave proof of its unconstitutionality, they just ruled that it was through conjecture. Now we have a court that interprets law as it wishes without constraints supposedly afforded per Paragraph II of the AoC.

They never really gave proof of its unconstitutionality, they just ruled that it was through conjecture.

As you can see from my post, I agree with you. Its my opinion that making withdrawal from the Union illegal is against everything the country was founded on. But the question still comes down to what the Constitution says about secession (not the meaningless Articles of Confederation). In fact, the Articles of Confederation said that the Union was permanent. Something the founders did not put into the Constitution since they were already breaking up the "permanent" union of the Articles to form a new Union with a minimum of 9 states peeled off from the old "permanent" union potentially leaving 4 to go their own way. Oops.

I have to rely on the founders belief in self-determination, the concept of reserved powers, that the States ratified individually and some retained the right in their ratifications to undelegate the powers they granted, etc. All that influences my opinion and yours, but its still opinion and others differ. The Constitution is silent. It could not be solved without a few hundred thousand dead and we are certainly not going to come up with an argument that clears it all up tonight.