Purported Scalia Letter: “No Right to Secede”

Over 10,000 New Jerseyans (and counting) have signed a petition on the White House website.

For Hurricane Sandy aid? Or the repeal of ObamaCare? The declaration of National E-Street Band Day?

Negative. Secession from the United States. Citizens of 47 states have launched similar petitions. Upon reaching 25,000 or more (like Texas) within 30 days, the Obama Administration will formally respond. Thought you’d seen it all, huh?

Don’t get too excited, Save Jerseyans. This is a Federalist blog. And even though New Jersey was a “copperhead” stronghold during the Civil War (and voted against Lincoln twice), this is still a Union state. We’re not going anywhere.

Even if New Jerseyans truly wanted to part ways. A New York screenwriter posed the question directly to our then-sitting Supreme Court Justices in 2006. One allegedly responded… and the letter (which appears to be signed by Antonin Scalia on his chambers letterhead) says it’s a non-starter:

I am afraid I cannot be of much help with your problem, principally because I cannot imagine that such a question could ever reach the Supreme Court. To begin with, the answer is clear. If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede. (Hence, in the Pledge of Allegiance, “one Nation, indivisible.”) Secondly, I find it difficult to envision who the parties to this lawsuit might be. Is the State suing the United States for a declaratory judgment? But the United States cannot be sued without its consent, and it has not consented to this sort of suit.

I am sure that poetic license can overcome all that — but you do not need legal advice for that. Good luck with your screenplay.

Click here for the full story (and a pdf of the “Scalia letter”) from the screenwriter’s attorney brother.

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