'We the People' Petitions Filed in Nineteen States Seeking Permission to Secede from the Union [UPDATE]
In the aftermath of last week's presidential election, residents in at least nineteen states have put up petitions on the government's "We the People" petitioning website seeking the right to secede from the rest of the country.
While the petitions themselves may not be significant, the reaction could be.
Petitions for secession filed from Louisiana and Texas have already received well over 10,000 signatures. Per the website's own rules, petitions that garner 25,000 signatures or more within 30 days require a response from the Obama administration.
Similar petitions from Alabama, Tennessee, and, interestingly, Oregon, are also gaining traction, with each receiving thousands of supporters over the weekend alone.
Other states in which residents have expressed an interest in going their own way include Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Missouri.
As unilateral secession was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, it remains to be seen if this movement is more than a toothless temper tantrum thrown by armchair revolutionaries.
UPDATE: In just a few short hours, the petition asking the Obama administration to "peacefully grant" Texas secession has gained over 10,000 signatures, surpassing the 25,000 necessary to elicit a response from the government.
Louisiana, meanwhile, is still nearly 9,000 signatories short of being taken seriously.
