CLAIM: UNILATERAL SECESSION THROUGH THE 10TH AMENDMENT IS A LEGAL MEANS FOR A STATE TO LEAVE THE UNION
INVESTIGATOR: John Needham
FACT CHECK DETAILS: FACTUAL ACCURATE
INVESTIGATORS FINDINGS:
Secession was and still is a legal option in the States today. There had to be a specific constitutional prohibition on secession for it to be illegal. Conversely, there did not have to be a specific constitutional affirmation of the right of secession to be legal. Why? Because the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution states:
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.
There was no constitutional prohibition on secession, nor was there a constitutional sanctioning of any federal coercion to force a state to obey a federal law because to do so was to perpetrate an act of war on the offending state by the other states, for whom the general government was their agent.