By Selwyn Duke

These United States rose above colony status by, essentially, seceding from Britain. Texas became one of these United States a decade after seceding from Mexico. Now Texas State Republican Convention members are talking again about the possibility of seceding — from the United States.

Critics, of course, say secession would be illegal. The Texas Tribune, for example, writes in a subtitle that the “Civil War established that a state cannot secede.” But do wars establish anything from a legitimately legal standpoint? Only if you believe that “might makes right.”

As to the Texas GOP’s action, its “State Republican Convention adopted a platform urging the Legislature to put a referendum before the people of Texas in November 2023 ‘to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation,’” the Tribune reports. The Texas paper is clear about its position on this, too: “No, Texas can’t legally secede from the U.S., despite popular myth,” its title reads.

In thus contending, these critics generally cite things such as a legal case following the War between the States. To wit: “In 1868's Texas v. White decision, the Court said leaving the Union can happen only through one of two ways: ‘revolution’ or ‘consent of the States,’” as Newsweek relates.

Of course, courts don’t make law anymore than wars do — they render opinion.

Read the rest here.