(NewsNation) — Saying his constituents in the state feel “ignored” by the federal government, a Republican politician has introduced a bill to let residents vote on and discuss separating Texas from the United States.
However, the U.S. Constitution has ruled that secession is not legally valid.
Republican State Rep. Bryan Slaton told NewsNation’s Adrienne Bankert that as he has talked to people around Texas, they’re frustrated with how the government has dealt with the border, how it’s spending money and other issues.
“What my bill simply does is it lets the people have a vote, instead of just electing the same people to go to Austin or to (Washington) D.C and try to fight for them,” he said on “Morning in America.” “What I want to see happen is I want the people to have a chance to vote on this. Let them decide if they’re happy with their government. Let them see if they’re happy with how they’re being treated, and how much they’re being taxed.”
Should House Bill 3596 pass, it would open the door to discussions on what’s needed for a “society and independent nation” to survive, Slaton said.
“What would you do with trade? What would you do for defense? What would you do for health care and education? And it’s just checking the boxes and answering the basic questions,” Slaton said.
After getting these questions answered comes the most important one: whether voters should approve recommending secession or not.
NewsNation partner The Hill reports that Slaton’s push to secede, which he has done before, comes exactly two weeks after U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) called for a “national divorce” — meaning the U.S. would separate by red states and blue states.
That comment garnered much criticism from both sides of the aisle.
However, these calls for secession may not end up amounting to much. As The Texas Tribune points out, the 1869 case Supreme Court case Texas v. White held that individual states “could not unilaterally secede from the Union,” and that even if the idea was approved by a majority of Texans, the move would be “absolutely null.”
“The legality of seceding is problematic,” Eric McDaniel, associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, told The Texas Tribune in 2016. “The Civil War played a very big role in establishing the power of the federal government and cementing that the federal government has the final say in these issues.”
However, Slaton says he is open to have the issue being taken all the way up to the highest court in the country.
“That’s fine,” he said. “The Supreme Court’s been wrong before.”