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The Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM), an organization supporting the state's independence from the union, threatened to launch multiple lawsuits against the state's GOP after the Supreme Court's decision on Monday which ruled in favor of the Biden administration over a border barrier dispute.
In a 5 to 4 vote, a majority of the court's justices ruled that federal officials are allowed to cut or remove parts of a razor-wire barrier that Texas had erected along the border with Mexico to keep migrants from crossing into its territory despite the state's complaints against this practice.
The ruling has angered Texans who back the efforts taken by Republican Governor Greg Abbott to fight illegal immigration in the state, including TNM, which urged Abbott to "call an immediate special session to explore Texas independence."
The group has long been campaigning for the state's independence, taking concrete steps in this direction in 2023. Last year, the conservative group filed a petition with the Texas Republican Party trying to get the question of whether the state should secede from the nation on the 2024 GOP primary ballot.
Despite the fact that the group collected nearly 140,000 signatures, the Texas GOP refused to accept the request, saying that the petition failed to meet necessary requirements. Specifically, the party said that the group failed to deliver their request on time and that the signatures weren't properly collected, with many being electronic—which is not allowed under state law.
"The Texas Nationalist Movement has had one lawsuit rejected by the Supreme Court and another they voluntarily dismissed. The reason for that is more than 90 percent of the purported Texit signatures were invalid or did not exist," a spokesperson for the Republican Party of Texas told Newsweek.
TNM argued against the GOP's refusal, saying that everything was done properly for the petition to be accepted by the party and asking the state's Supreme Court to judge on the case. Earlier this month, the court refused to do so.
"The Texas GOP and the judicial system royally screwed over 139 thousand petition signers," TNM leader Daniel Miller said on the Texas News podcast. In the same episode, the TNM head said the group is hiring more lawyers to launch several lawsuits against the GOP.
"We are bringing in additional attorneys to fight this issue moving forward," Miller said. "This is going to be a big deal...and we're going to find out at the end of this, one way or the other, who was right. But, I will tell you...we did the right thing."
Newsweek reached out to TNM for comment via email on Tuesday.
Miller did not offer any details on the lawsuits, saying that he didn't want to give Abbott and the Texas GOP any heads-up. "Let them guess from where the next blow comes," he said. "But we're not, by any stretch of the imagination, done."
At the end of the episode, Republican Ben Mostyn, a Texas House candidate for District 117, said he didn't wish to see the state leaving the rest of the country but he thinks residents have the "right" to vote for secession when the federal system is failing them—which he said it's the case now.
Despite conservative groups like TNM having long called for "Texit," especially whenever the state's leadership finds itself clashing with the federal government, the state cannot legally secede from the United States.
This was established following the Civil War which saw Texas rejoining the nation. In the 1869 case Texas v. White, it was decided that individual states cannot unilaterally decide to leave the union.
Update 1/24/24, 4:35 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a comment from the Texas GOP.
Correction 1/24/24 7:55 a.m. ET: This article originally said the TNM petition had collected nearly 140 signatures. The correct number was 140,000.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more