From Article 50 to the Great Repeal Bill, Brexit is providing an ironic blueprint for a state to leave the United States of America. The rumblings are growing louder in California, Texas, South Carolina, Colorado and other states to go it alone. With meaningful reform of the bloated federal government seemingly insurmountable, to avoid a catastrophe like the Civil War, America might look to Brexit for a step-by-step guide to an orderly division.
The first step is Article 50. In 2009, the European Union voted to enact Article 50, which contains a brief but certain process for a member country to leave the EU. It contains a method to notify the EU governing body and a 2-year negotiation period to settle the details. Although the US constitution does not specify that once ratified by a state there is no withdrawal, there is currently no express provision for a state to withdraw from the Union. Step one is to pass a constitutional amendment with provisions similar to Article 50. The mood is ripe in America, on both the left and the right, and the people at large would likely support a brief and reasonable amendment like Article 50. It would be Amendment 28 to the US Constitution, so let’s call it that.
Step two is a statewide referendum by any state that seeks to withdraw. With the surprise election of outsider Donald Trump to the presidency, the cultural chasm in America created largely by the sexual revolution, widespread disagreement between left and right on the authority of the federal government, repeated abuses by the judicial branch to “enact” nationwide policy and the marginalization of the largest demographic in America, Christians, the stage is set for southern states on the right, and certain coastal states on the left, to vote on the issue.
Upon passage of a state’s referendum, step three is for the state to notify Congress of its demand to withdraw under Amendment 28, which would trigger a two-year negotiation process. There is much to negotiate in that two-year period, including trade arrangements (treaties), currency establishment and exchange, “immigration” and work rights of state residents living in other states, border controls, joint defense agreements, a federal income tax phase-out, a federal funding phase-out (think Medicare and Social Security) and much more. The two-year period would also allow the exiting state an opportunity to begin reviewing federal laws that it might seek to retain in state form.
Then comes step 4, the formal exit and enactment of a law to establish state law primacy. Currently in the United States, federal law supersedes state law in the event of a conflict. This federal preemption of state law has been the source of much litigation and disagreement over the history of the United States. Following the Supreme Court’s commerce clause decisions of the early 20th century, with an expansion of federal law authority into matters expressly reserved to the states in the 10th Amendment, there is little the federal government does not claim to control. Matters of morality, police powers, education, health and welfare were at one time matters for each state to decide for itself. But with so much federal legislation addressing these and other issues, states will need to repeal their own state constitutional and statutory provisions on matters of federal preemption and establish once again that state law controls. For Brexit, the Great Repeal Bill satisfies this function to reestablish the primacy of British law and will go into effect according to its terms on March 29, 2019.
Accordingly, at the end of March, 2019, Great Britain will forge its own destiny once again, apart from the “federal” mandatory requirements and potential benefits of the European Union. On that date, the illiberal dream of a single world government will meet its single largest stumbling block since its inception with the League of Nations following World War I. It will likely never recover. Is it so far fetched to document a timeline for Calexit that begins with Congressional approval of Amendment 28 in 2020 after the re-election of Donald Trump with its associated domestic unrest, a California referendum on secession in 2022 funded by liberal George Soros, state legislative ratification of a vote to leave in 2023 and full exit in 2025? Or a Texit or Carolexit or Yorkexit or Orexit on the same timeframe? Once one state successfully exits, others will follow – just as once Britain exits, other EU nations will surely follow. It’s hard to argue they should be forced to remain. Subsidiarity affirms that the governing body closest to the need should have the authority. Federal overreach and its associated national and cultural decay prove the point in the United States. Restoring power to the people is why the early states launched the American Revolution in the first place. It’s ironic that Great Britain provided the blueprint for a reset.