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Concur. The top-hatted despot proved that all that stuff in the founding documents about a voluntary coalition of states & that a state could peacefully leave when it and the Republic were at odds was a load of horsehockey if the right despot had the right amount of power.
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I have a problem with that, and here's why:
In the Constitution our founding fathers provided for the creation of the Union (by the ratification of a specified number of states); they provided for the creation/addition of additional states (such as territories making application to become states; or even a state splitting into two states such as Virginia/West Virginia).
But nowhere in the Constitution or any amendments is there any contemplation or process for a State to leave the Union.
You would think that if leaving the Union was a possibility, the Constitution would have provided the rationale and the process.
- Majority vote by a state, ratified by a majority vote of both houses of Congress?
- A motion made by a state's legislature and signed by the state's governor,
thereafter approved by a majority vote of both houses of Congress? 2/3 vote?, 3/4 vote? of one or both houses of Congress?
Compare and contrast (as my high school social studies teacher would say) the rather express one way in, no way out provisions of the United States Constitution,
with the provisions of Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union, a "treaty" that is the de facto "constitution of the United States of Europe," and expressly provides for a member of the Union to withdraw from the Union.
Yes, it still has gaps and unclear terms, but Article 50, leading now to "Brexit" as England departs the European Union, at least embraces the concept that a state/nation can join a Union, but then thereafter decide ... under provisions in the establishing document ... to withdraw from that Union.
Our United States Constitution has no "Article 50." For better or for worse, we are wedded for life.
Or as that same teacher said many years ago:
"Can a State leave the United States? No. We settled that at a courthouse in a place called Appomattox."