Should Texas be allowed to succeed from the States?

As overman points out, Texas has an unusual legal status. As one of the three states which joined the U.S. as independent nations rather than as territories, Texas has two unusual rights. It has the right to secede without the approval of the rest of the U.S., a legal right which was never challenged during the Civil War. And is has the right to split into five pre-determined smaller states without approval of the rest of the U.S., something it is unlikely ever to do as three of the five portions would receive the tax base of major cities, the other two would not.

Although it's occasionally brought up in the Texas state legislature, it's been since the 60s since a secession proposal made it to the floor, and in my experience, the vast majority of Texas residents are unaware of either of these two provisions.


California has similar provisions...the right to split into three; but again, one section would get LA as a tax base, another would get San Francisco, the third, no major city. California has some sort of secession right, but I'm not sure...it may require at least Executive Branch approval.

I would be afraid if they did secede. They have Bush he may declare war on the US. LOL

I think we should give Texas back to Mexico...this would accomplish three things........(1)improve relations with our southern neighbor. (2) reduce the amount of illegal aliens coming into the U.S. and (3) we would never have another president from Texas..........

I live in Texas and I wouldn't want us to secede from the United States. What would be the point?

This is just the beginning of what I have felt was going to happen for a long time now. Remember when the Berlin wall fell and The USSR colapsed? This country is headed for Balkinization. If Texas succeeds I will move there. Look at my profile and read the story in the group "help orion take back the country".

I'm from Texas too,I'm with Wm,what would be the point???

Actually, I was born a Texan and raised in the Houston area for much of my life.

When Texas was its own country and decided to join the United States, they had a clause about being able to succeed whenever they choose. At the time, people were still big on it being its own country.

I would not want to lose Texas. A lot of my family leaves there.

Secede - please! The word is secede. Succeed means something else entirely. And the last time Texas tried to secede they didn't succeed.

they wouldn't survive

We could survive as our own country, but no one is seriously talking of secession. There is no serious great debate going on over this. This question is going to cause Texas "bashers" to come out and spout nonsense and hatred. There is nothing wrong with Texas that is not common among the other 50 states. The U. S. as a whole needs change, not just Texas. All Texans are not the same. All "southerners" are not the same. Here we go with generalisations about Texas and Texans....it's crap.
I got off the subject a little......Das has the best answer, it just ain't happening. No one takes it seriously here in Texas, save a few nutjobs, which you find everywhere in the states....

I think it would be crazy to become a separate country... You would have to start your own military. You would probably tick the US off so bad that they would not help with a lot of stuff. You might have to get a passport to go see your family that lives less than a mile away. You already have state laws, use them to run your state the way you like it.

Yeah this is in the paper EVERYDAY here in Texas. There are riots in the street there are, oh wait there is none of that... this topic was 10 years ago and a minor headline involving a cult/group spouting rhetoric. Not going on sorry

BTW Texas was the only state that once was it's own country

I recall how Quebec there up north, not only discussing this more than once but I do believe it actually went to the level of being voted on to leave Canada

If Texas did secede, I give it about six months before that same contrary, oppositional character in their culture got them into a full out war with Mexico. Or, conversely, they could relax into their long history and tradition, and allow themselves to be absorbed as another Mexican state! It could go either way.

Yes, we Texans are afraid the US government will take away our banjos and make us squeal like pigs so we should secede from the union. Come on -- give me a break! Texas is a very big state with lots of different points of view and I certainly hope that you wouldn't listen to some loopy fringe element who dreams of returning Texas to the wild, wild west and believe they speak for all of us. I didn't think that Rod Blagojevich spoke for the state of Illinois; Texans deserve the same courtesy.

Secede, you mean?

Yes because it has locust plagues.

No.

Hmm. As a Canadian, I am familiar with one diva in the family always threatening to secede. But they won't. It's like a bratty kid saying they want their own room in the house and do whatever they want to do independently of the rest of the family. But they still want their allowance, free rent and three squares a day provided. ( i.e. pensions, no taxes, and public services provided.)
I don't know where one state or province gets the idea they can just withdraw from a country that they are only a part of. The rest of the country will vote them down. Unless the individual people themselves want to leave the country itself, of course, and go set up on some deserted island somewhere.

I say, don't let the door hit you in the rear on the way out.

Seriously, I heard Tom Delay quote that remark about Texas having the right to divide into 10 states - but I think he's dead wrong. If I remember my Constitutional Law course, the issue of secession was settled by the US Supreme Court right after the end of the Civil War. I'll have to look it up, but the case had something to do with the confederate states being sued by petitioners as if they were a separate country. If I remember correctly, the Court's decision said that the Union had always existed and the "confederate" states were in fact not separate, so they could not be sued as a separate entity. I'm sure the political talk shows will talk this to death this weekend. I think it would cover the breaking up into 10 states, too, since that would effectively mean Texas was seceding.

Anyone else know about this decision? It's late - I have to go to bed and probably shouldn't have answered this question.

I'm back- I found it:

In Texas v. White (1869), the Court held in a 5–3 decision that Texas had remained a state of the United States ever since it first joined the Union, despite its joining the Confederate States of America and its being under military rule at the time of the decision in the case. It further held that the Constitution did not permit states to secede from the United States, and that the ordinances of secession, and all the acts of the legislatures within seceding states intended to give effect to such ordinances, were "absolutely null".