Less than 24 hours after President Obama won his re-election, petitions are filed for states to secede from the Union.
People in more than 30 states have signed the petitions. The petitions were all filed with the "We the People" program on the White House website. To be considered the petitons must get at least 25,000 signartures within 30 days of its filing. The only state to reach that requirement is Texas. The Lone Star State had nearly 60,000 signatures Tuesday morning.
FactFinder 12 looked into what it takes to secede. We found out that it's illegal. In 1869, the Supreme court ruled states who voluntarily join the Union cannot pick and choose when it wants to leave.
The same laws apply to the state of Texas. According to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas received no special terms in its admission to the Union.
While many believe an annexation treaty gives Texas the right to secede from the United States, that is untrue. Texas was admitted into the U.S. by a joint resolution of Congress. No such "special terms" were included in that joint resolution or in the 1845 Constitution of the State of Texas.
A new petition appeared on WhiteHouse.gov Tuesday asking President Obama to strip everyone signing the secession petitions of their citizenship.
