SAN ANTONIO — With the upcoming election, politics is at the top of mind for many people. In tonight's Verify, one state in particular is getting extra attention. Surprise surprise, that state is Texas! The eyes of many are on the Lone Star state in most elections, but this claim would take Texas, and no longer make it a state.
THE QUESTION
Can the State of Texas really secede from the union?
THE SOURCES
- Marc Schulman, the editor-in-chief of historycentral.com
- The United States Supreme Court
THE ANSWER
FALSE
WHAT WE FOUND
Schulman said this goes back to the presidency of Andrew Jackson, and when South Carolina tried to secede over a national tariff that the state thought was too pricey.
"They said they would not abide by it. After a year of negotiations, Jackson then said, the only way you can not abide by it is by leaving the union, and then we can leave. The union is based on conflict, and armed conflict is treason," Schulman said. "So the answer was no."
The current Supreme Court precedent looked to Texas v. White in 1869. The decision said states cannot secede from the union by an act of state. But in 2006, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia proclaimed, "If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede."
So no, it is false. The State of Texas cannot secede from the union.
Schulman also told us that so many more people move around from state to state throughout their lives, that if someone is that unhappy in the state they live, they can always move to another, and still be a part of the U.S.