This week, Republican governors across the country escalated their conflict with the Biden administration over the southern border by invoking the same legal theory that slave states wielded to justify secession before the Civil War.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, joined by 25 other GOP governors, now argues that the Biden administration has violated the federal government’s “compact” with the states—an abdication that justifies state usurpation of federal authority at the border.
This language embraces the Confederacy’s conception of the Constitution as a mere compact that states may exit when they feel it has been broken. It’s dangerous rhetoric that transcends partisan grandstanding. And as before, it’s being used to legitimize both nullification and dehumanization.
It’s literally never going to happen.
Doesn’t mean they won’t try. Last time someone tried, the civil war happened. Lack of success doesn’t mean lack of associated problems or consequences. The real questions would be how far would they get and how bad would it get. Sure, there’s a good chance they would never actually try, but the chances they will aren’t zero.
Pretty damn close to zero.