[Maelstrom]

or where the Constitution allows a state to act in an arbitrary manner where the interests of another state are involved then you might bring me around to your belief that arbitrary secession was legal.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The Constitution allows *everything* to the States excepting ONLY those powers granted to the Constitution.

[Non-Sequitur]

The Constitution allows *everything* to the States excepting ONLY those powers granted to the Constitution.

And the power to decide the status of a state is clearly a power reserved to the United States. And that includes when a state ceases to become a state.