Posted on 02/17/2010 9:08:09 AM PST by Palter
Is there a right to secede from the Union, or did the Civil War settle that?
Certain Tea Partiers have raised the possibility of getting out while the getting's good, setting off a round of debate on legal blogs. The more cerebral theorists at the smart legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy question whether such a right exists.
Enter a New York personal injury lawyer, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The lawyer, Eric Turkewitz, says his brother Dan, a screenwriter, put just such a question to all of the Supreme Court justices in 2006 -- he was working on an idea about Maine leaving the U.S.and a big showdown at the Supreme Court -- and Scalia responded. His answer was no:
"I am afraid I cannot be of much help with your problem, principally because I cannot imagine that such a question could ever reach the Supreme Court. To begin with, the answer is clear. If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede. (Hence, in the Pledge of Allegiance, "one Nation, indivisible.") Secondly, I find it difficult to envision who the parties to this lawsuit might be. Is the State suing the United States for a declaratory judgment? But the United States cannot be sued without its consent, and it has not consented to this sort of suit.
I am sure that poetic license can overcome all that -- but you do not need legal advice for that. Good luck with your screenplay."
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
Exactly. Liberals lose all the time, hell they can’t win because Socialism Always Fails, but they never quit trying. Why should we?
Let's not ‘upset’ the NEO-PINKO/Yankee - Bovine Semen Swallower's.
P.S
Libtard
Sometimes the SCOTUS gets it wrong. See Roe v. Wade as just one example.
Wanna watch us, Judge?
Just so. And make no mistake, We the People have allowed this to happen and We the People will have to fix it. WE have also got to drag our states, some kicking and screaming probably, into the fray. From the beginning they should have been our first line of defense against a feral government, and any many cases in the early going, some tried. The jackbooted actions and outright extortion by the federales brought most to heel. We've lost many battles but the war against tyrants never ends until such time as we are unwilling to defend our freedoms.
Why don’t you give it a rest you self righteous asshole!
The union is held together by an armed military, now just as it was in the 1860's. The constitution is that scrap of paper about half of us hope the gubmint abides by ... actually, I should say wish the gubmint would abide by.
Two hundred and forty years ago the farmers and merchants who threw off King George's yoke were armed nearly as well as King George's military.
Spend a little time on some sites like 'military.com' for a sobering view of the toys we-the-taxpayers have provided for the "commander in chief."
When push comes to shove, we will have a better time of it by swamping gubmint with massive civil disobedience than with armed opposition. Fewer of us will die in the process. Not none, but fewer.
That is incorrect. If you look at the legislation which 'readmitted' Texas you will see that what was being readmitted was their delegation to Congress and not the state to the Union. Link
Texas is not referred to as a former state or a territory, she is clearly identified as the State of Texas. Which is appropriate since she was never out of the Union to begin with.
Why don't you direct your ire towards those who began the name calling in the first place?
It did provide the court with the one case on the matter, Texas v. White. And as much at the Lost Causers will cry that it's a bad decision because of X, Y, and Z, it's still a US Supreme Court decision.
It's as if after a single battle in a larger war against tyranny the loser is eternally obligated somehow to be under the heel of the winner. That the loser of a single battle and some other lesser skimishes cannot regroup, rearm and reorganize for a counter-attack just takes my breath away.
They can. They just can't go into court when they're arrested and explain that they thought it was legal.
There's a natural right of rebellion. Overthrow the Constitutional government of the United States and you can make up your own rules. But you can't expect that the government is obliged just roll over and give anyone anything they ask for.
Yeah, who needs that thar law bullshit anyhow? Certainly not the stalwart members of the Lost Cause Brigade.
Let's not ‘upset’ the NEO-PINKO/Yankee - Bovine Semen Swallower's.
You know the way that you and cowboyway accuse everyone of being homosexual at the drop of a hat makes me wonder if there isn't something Freudian in that.
Libtard
Commie.
I think it's in the genes or something. Libtards are driven by demons conservatives can barely understand and certainly have difficulty dealing with. They are control freaks, for lack of a better term; conservatives just want to be left alone. You can see the essence of the problem. Libtards are wild-eyed fanatics, not unlike islamofascists, incessantly fighting for control to sate the demons. Conservatives on the other hand will not violently react to their lunacy until there's no other way to respond. The libtards will say "OMG, we never saw it coming. We were just trying to help"! God spare us from these inveterate busybodies.
Precisely because he's a self righteous asshole.
The logic of this is really ridiculous. If one side forces the other to stay when they don’t want to, then those that must stay are nothing more than SLAVES.
You’ll pardon my, uh, less than elegant language??? It boiled down to either “twit” or “asshole”; asshole won out. ;^)
You like to mock the South as though you were personally there in the Civil War fighting against them, making that your basis to say the North would do it again. Well, not with pink fingered wussies like you who have never made a fist in their life but like to talk tough; you’d cry like a baby and whimper away. The North and the South are no longer the places they were in 1860, yet, you continue to talk as though they are, bashing the South as just a bunch of drunken racist rednecks. Grow up, stupid, the world isn’t as your liberal glasses view it.
I guess the “Civil War” nullifies the Declaration of Independence, right, Justuce Scalia?
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