Fox's Sean Hannity and Matt Drudge are giving credence to people who have reacted to President Obama's reelection by petitioning the president to allow states to secede from the United States, something his position does not have the power to do.

In 2011, Obama established a mechanism for people to create and sign petitions on the White House website, and if any petition receives 25,000 or more signatures within 30 days, White House officials will respond to the petition. In the days following Obama's reelection, people have filed secession petitions for more than 40 states, and the Texas secession has garnered more than 90,000 signatures.

Obama, however, does not have the power to grant secession. In the 1868 case of Texas v. White, the Supreme Court addressed whether Texas had legally seceded from the United States during the Civil War and held that the Constitution created an indestructible and perpetual union: “The Constitution, in all of its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union composed of indestructible States. When, therefore, Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation.” Law professor Michael Dorf has concluded that a state may need a super-majority in Congress or even a constitutional amendment in order to secede.

Nevertheless, Fox News host Sean Hannity gave credence to the secession movement, something he has done before. On the November 13 edition of his show, Hannity interviewed Daniel Miller, president of the pro-secession Texas Nationalist Movement. Miller was previously the president of the “Republic of Texas,” and in that capacity was included in an Anti-Defamation League "Rogue's Gallery" of extremists.

While Hannity suggested that secession might not be the best solution, he did not suggest at any point that secession was not a serious alternative for those who oppose Obama. Indeed, Hannity asked Miller to “explain constitutionally ... where you see the right to” secede.

Miller told Hannity that the petition would not accomplish anything by itself because Obama won't grant secession, but stated that there were processes that could achieve secession. The Texas Nationalist Movement website attacks Texas v. White as an illegitimate decision.

The Drudge Report is also giving the secession petitions credence, with the lead headline “Secession Movement Explodes” below a 2012 electoral map.