Story highlights Danny Cevallos: California's threat to leave the United States not empty

However unlikely, secession is an American tradition, he writes

Danny Cevallos (@CevallosLaw) is a CNN Legal Analyst and a personal injury and criminal defense attorney practicing in Pennsylvania and the US Virgin Islands. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) California is now talking about secession after the Trump election victory Tuesday. The "Yes California" campaign is pushing an independence referendum in support of a constitutional exit from the United States.

While the Constitution contains provisions for accepting new states, there aren't any provisions dealing with a state exit. Advocates insist there is a procedural path. One option, according to proponents of "Calexit," is an amendment to the Constitution permitting the Golden State to leave the Union. If that amendment passes with a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House it would be sent to the 50 state legislatures. Thirty-eight out of 50 statehouses would have to approve it to satisfy what the Supreme Court calls the "consent of the states" requirement established in the 1869 Texas v. White decision. Another path would require a convention of the states and a similar 76% state approval.

Danny Cevallos

But what if California doesn't feel like doing it the amicable way? What if California doesn't want to ask permission; what if California simply wants to leave?

Maybe you're thinking , "Didn't Texas talk about doing the same thing but no one took them seriously?"

Or, like a lot of Americans, you're probably drawing on your high school civics lessons, shaking your head, and muttering to yourself: "C'mon. States can't secede from the Union. Wasn't this issue settled hundreds of years ago in the American Civil War?"

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