Is there a legal mechanism for a state to leave the US?
Posted on Apr 20, 2025 / USA
No, there is no legal mechanism under the U.S. Constitution that allows a state to unilaterally secede from the United States.
The idea of secession was definitively addressed in the aftermath of the Civil War. In Texas v. White (1869), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot unilaterally secede. The Court stated:
The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States.While the Court acknowledged that revolution or consent of the other states (through constitutional amendment or another agreed-upon process) could theoretically result in a state's separation, there's no legal process in the Constitution itself that permits a state to just opt out of the Union.
So in short:
Unilateral secession = illegal.
Secession by mutual agreement = theoretically possible but incredibly unlikely and without a defined legal process.
How such an idea might even be attempted in modern times? It would probably require:
1. A state vote or constitutional amendment proposing secession.
2. Federal approval, likely through a constitutional amendment, which needs:
A) Two-thirds of both the House and Senate,
B) Plus ratification by three-fourths of the states.
So it's technically imaginable, but functionally impossible under current U.S. law and political reality.
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