What has triggered the demand for Calexit? |
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In spite of President-elect Donald Trump’s conciliatory overtures after winning the election, the #notmypresident movement continues to grow. The protests are especially poignant in California where 61% of voters chose Hillary Clinton.
The ‘Golden State’ now wants to become the Golden Nation through an independence referendum they want to get organized in 2019. Encouraged by California’s strong economy and high population, the so-called “Calexit” could gain traction following the election of Donald Trump. In fact, the supporters of Calexit are using this result opportunistically to revive their old demand.
The Yes California movement still has a way to go, however.
California isn’t the only state that will now grapple with the legality of an ‘exit’ – Oregon too is making a similar demand. |
Why is the movement getting support? |
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Nearly 6,000 Californians were on the streets in an anti-Trump protest yesterday. It is not the first time California has protested against Trump. In April this year, when Trump seemed set to become the nominee of the Republican Party, hundreds of protestors tried their best to prevent him from speaking. Trump had to use a backdoor to address his rally. He said he felt like he was crossing a border.
The campaign for independence – variously dubbed Calexit, Califrexit and Caleavefornia – has been regarded as a fringe movement.
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When has this happened before? |
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Mexico had reluctantly ceded California and much of its northern territory to the United States in the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. When the Mexican diplomats signed the treaty, they did not mourn the loss because California was a region of “sleepy mission towns” with a tiny population of about 7,300. The move could not have been more poorly timed.Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, nine days before they signed the peace treaty. Suddenly, the greatest gold rush in history was on. More than 60,000 people from around the globe came to California in 1849 alone. They were called the forty-niners.
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Where is the rationale behind the Yes California campaign? |
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Who can prevent Calexit? |
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Aside from having a catchy hashtag (and the associated ‘likes’ and ‘shares’), there is little that the movement can do to take California, home to 11.6% of the US population out of the federation.
YesCalifornia says there is a legal path leading to its exit: first a measure on the 2018 ballot would need the approval of California voters. Then, movement organizers envision seeking the consent of the other states, a move they believe is laid out in Texas v. White, an 1869 Supreme Court case. But this legal framework is merely hypothetical. The Texas v. White verdict said that the states could only leave “through revolution or through consent of the States.”
Note: Texas v. White was a significant case argued before the US Supreme Court in 1869. The case involved a claim by the Reconstruction government of Texas that United States bonds owned by Texas since 1850 had been illegally sold by the Confederate state legislature during the American Civil War. In deciding the merits of the bond issue, the court further held that the Constitution did not permit states to unilaterally secede from the United States. Even politically speaking, the movement has a very slim change of retaining the current momentum.
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How would this work, even if it did? |
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The U.S. Constitution contains rules for how a state may enter the union but doesn't have explicit instructions on how to leave. According to Article IV, "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress."
It seems close to impossible that California would separate from the US. But, then, that is what they said of the chances of Britain exiting the European Union and Donald Trump becoming President. |