A Republican state representative from Fredericksburg is making headlines by promoting an old idea.
And a bad idea at that.
Kyle Biedermann took to Facebook on Tuesday to announce he plans to file legislation that would authorize a statewide referendum on whether Texas should leave the U.S. and form its own country.
"The federal government is out of control and does not represent the values of Texans. That is why I am committing to file legislation this session that will allow a referendum to give Texans a vote for the State of Texas to reassert its status as an independent nation," he wrote.
Now, this isn't the first time the idea of modern secession has been floated. Nor will it likely be the last. Those on the lunatic fringe have been promoting it for years. And these days even some more reasonable folk are willing to entertain the notion.
It may make for headlines, but it's not going to happen.
In poll after poll, Texans overwhelmingly want to remain part of the U.S. And even if residents voted to form a new nation, it can't legally happen.
Texas, along with other Southern states, pulled out of the U.S. once and lost a bitter war because of it. And in 1879, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Texas vs. White that when "Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States."
In other words, no state can secede from the U.S. on its own, even if its citizens vote to do so, though the court left open the possibility of secession if the other states consented.
More recently, the late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in 2006 that "If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede."
It's time for Texans to give up this old myth. Especially those, such as elected officials, who should know better.