The GOP candidate had said last week that states could secede if they felt the need to do so.

The GOP candidate had said last week that states could secede if they felt the need to do so.

Nikki Haley, fresh off her Civil War history refresher on this week’s Saturday Night Live, appeared to remember what the Constitution allowed when it comes to state secession: nothing.

Haley again walked back her comments saying states could choose if they wanted to secede from the U.S., telling CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that she didn’t believe the Constitution afforded them that right. It came days after she told radio host Charlamagne tha God that states like Texas could “make the decisions that their people want to make.”

“According to the Constitution, they can’t,” Haley told CNN. “What I think they have the right to do is have the power to protect themselves and do all that. Texas has talked about that for a long time. The Constitution doesn’t allow for that.”

The GOP presidential candidate then tried to pivot to why Texas would consider such an option, citing Gov. Greg Abbott’s frustration with the Biden administration’s handling of the Southern border and the state’s desire to protect itself.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    111·
    10 months ago

    I’m not 100% sure on this, but I think there might possibly have been a five-year war fought on this very subject in the mid-1800s and the “we can secede” people lost.

    At least that’s what some guy on TV told me this one time.

    • shortwavesurferEnglish
      111·
      10 months ago

      And there has been absolutely no change since the 1860s. Women still don’t have the right to vote. Black people are still segregated and commonly kept from jobs. Marijuana is not legal. Time changes societies.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        111·
        10 months ago

        Which amendment to the Constitution added since the 1860s has allowed states to secede?

        Because Article 10 was written before the 1860s.

        • shortwavesurferEnglish
          18·
          10 months ago

          Exactly. Nowhere in the Constitution is secession mentioned. Therefore, Article 10 would apply since that is not given to the federal government. The only thing we have that says we can’t is Texas versus white. And that is quite dubious because of course the United States would pass a court judgment saying you can’t secede from the United States.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            91·
            10 months ago

            Again, there was a war fought over whether or not the states could secede. The ones that thought they could lost.

            I’m not sure why you need something more decisive than that.

            • shortwavesurferEnglish
              18·
              10 months ago

              I would hope a war is not needed to settle such a dispute in modern times. If the states truly wish to leave peacefully, let them. The harder we hang on to this “union” the more devided and hateful we all become. Its time to let Bye-gones, be bye-gones. We tried and it is in the process of failing as we speak.