I've read the tenth amendment a number of times. Strange, I didn't find anything written about the right of states to secede whenever they felt like it.
Don't you think something as momentous as a state seceding from the union would have something codified in the U.S. constitution allowing it to do so instead.
@goatprairie You won't find anything about individuals having the right to vote either. Don't you think something as momentous as an individual having the right to vote would have something codified in the US Constitution?
Come to think of it, there is nothing in the Constitution that grants the right to free speech either. Go figure. Oh sure, it places a limitation on what the legislature can do. But it doesn't give you the right to free speech.
You've really got to twist the meaning of the amendment to interpret it as the fed. gov. okaying secession.
Let's take a closer look at that wording, shall we?
Amendment X: 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.Rights not delegated by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states? Gee, that would include the right to secede. And as it specifically says, that right would be "reserved to the states respectively". No twisting there. It is exactly what it says.
Just imagine living in a country where at any time some majority of people in a state could vote for secession. Don't you think that would be kind of a crazy country?
Yet that is exactly what the United States was intended to be. It is an additional check on the national government that makes it accountable to the States.