State's Secession Rights

After the British referendum to leave the European Union narrowly passed in June of 2016, the idea of state secession has been revived. In Texas especially, have secessionist movements recently become more vocal. Although Britain's’ decision to leave the E.U. cannot exactly be compared to a state leaving the Union, we do have relatively recent history and experience with this issue. The most serious attempt at secession was the 1860s Civil War, which resulted in the creation of the Confederate States of America, and later its defeat and “rejoining” of the South and the North. Ever since, many politicians have argued for a constitutional amendment to specifically allow a state to separate from the Union, but none have succeeded. Many courts have debated this issue, garnering responses from multiple Supreme and District court Justice throughout American history.

From the founding fathers and their extensive work on the Constitution to the Civil War and through court cases such as Texas v. White, many guarantees to the state have been created. Pattani’s article in the Texas Tribune sums up how the Civil War impacted the state’s rights to secede, “The war played a very big role in establishing the power of the federal government and cementing that the federal government has the final say in these issues”. But, even before the war, the constitution was very specific that the union be indestructible.

Our constitution guarantees, “a state may be neither divided nor combined with another state without the consent of Congress and state legislatures. Each state is guaranteed a representative government, two federal level senators, and at least one federal representative” (Brown et. al. 2016). Many have argued that from the beginnings of the country, states have not had a legal basis to leave the Union. But, that obviously didn’t stop Texas and ten other states from forming the Confederate States of America in the early 1860s or stop recent movements from spreading the “legend [that Texas] retains its own special secession clause” (Wile 2016).

Texas is unique in its history of secession movements, having successfully left two countries: Mexico and the United States. Both times were never immediately recognized by the respective governments. Mexico only gave up claim on Texas after fighting a bloody war with the U.S. Texas only rejoined the Union after agreeing to surrender and going through the lengthy annexation process. Texas, however, reserved a few rights. For instance, it is the only state to have the power to divide itself into as many as five states (Brown et. al. 2016). This process of partitioning the state is much different than secession. In other states, some movements have attempted to partition and add states, which both have legal processes set in the fourth Article of the Constitution, but no other state has the right that Texas does. Again, Pattani’s article summed this up perfectly by stating, “the U.S. Constitution contains procedures for admitting new states into the nation, but none for a state to leave (2016).

Texas is also unique in that it has had more than its fair share of legal battles over the legality of the issue. Texas v. White resulted in the Court finding individual states could not secede from the Union and that the acts of the then current Texas Legislature to fight certain federal annexation requirements, “ even if ratified by a majority of Texans — were absolutely null" (Pattani 2016). The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, where Justice Salmon P. Chase was author of the majority opinion, writing:

“When Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final” (Wile 2016).

Many historians believe that when the Confederacy surrendered in 1865, the idea of secession was also defeated. The North’s victory set a precedent that states could not legally secede. However, that hasn’t stopped attempts throughout the country and especially in Texas to leave the Union. The State of Texas is the only state where secession and survival of a theoretical new nation would possibly survive. Bob Smiley’s Business Insider article summarized the legitimate reasons why Texas could survive leaving the Union: historical precedence, defense reasons, access to natural resources, utilities, and the powerhouse that is the Texas economy. Texas not only has the economy comparable to “Canada”, but it has the resources to support and drive it (Smiley 2016). The state’s utilities are also separate from every other state. For example, the Texas power system isn’t completely connected to any of the nation’s other grids. Another aspect of Texas’ unique rights is its ability to maintain its own ability to maintain and operate four different state military outfits, not to mention the many military bases on Texas soil. Although there are many reasons why Texas could succeed in seceding, the chances of it actually happening are very low.

Bump’s article on Business Insider’s website weighed the odds that states gain the right to secede. He theorizes that “ask[ing] politely” and “withdrawing by force” have zero chance of happening, while rating the chance of amending the constitution as “low”. Most importantly, he observes that there may be a one hundred percent chance that the experiment that is America will come to an end in the future, just as every major empire in human history has.
Even with all of the history our nation has had with this issue, it still will remain a heated discussion for perhaps centuries to come. At the moment, secession cannot legally happen for any state, but as we’ve seen with the Civil War, sometimes legality is the last thing these governments and citizens can or will care about. In the future, secession may be necessary, or even legally possible, but as of this moment all of the discussion is just talk.