Uncle Kenny
Member
- Mar 19, 2011
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The Constitution cedes certain powers to the Federal government. States should be autonomous by the 9th and 10th Amendments other then for those powers that were ceded. But to revoke ceding those powers would require a Constitutional Amendment.
So, the way a State can secede from the Union is with 2/3 vote in both houses and approval of 3/4 of the legislatures. It cannot just stop ceding powers in the Constitution any other way.
Actually no contract or agreement including the Constitution requires them to stay part of the union at all. The Constitution doesn't require membership and it can't, so therefore no Amendment is required, simple decision of the state is all that would be required as there is no power for the federal government to prohibit secession, unless you can find one...
U.S. Constitution - Article 7 - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net
This establishes how many states needed to ratify the constitution, how does that mandate any state remaining part of the union should they choose to secede? Oh, it doesn't. Nothing does. Even in ratifying the Constitution it was understood that the power of the federal government was granted by the states, not as a seperate overseeing entity but as a unified national governing body between them. This is also why no federal taxation was originally allowed for. Citizens paid taxes to the states and the states funded the federal government.
As the intent was for any state to be able to leave at the discretion of the people if they became dissatisfied with the federal government, secession was never prohibited and ratification didn't mandate any membership, but states were voluntarily consolidated.