The case for secession is far stronger today than during the Civil War era because our combined tax rate now exceeds 50%, and only half the population still pays income tax to the federal government. One could argue that only the untaxed half the population can be considered “free”. This will change with “ObamaCare” which forces the middle class to pay into that bottomless pit of national government.

Despite President Lincoln’s terrible mistake of the Civil War and the US Supreme Court’s erroneous decisions, the legal right to secession still exists because the constitution never gave Congress the power to expel a state, and the 10th Amendment reserves all ungranted powers to the states and their people. So a literal reading of the constitution should make it obvious that the Union of the states was entirely voluntary on the part of the states and the 10th Amendment preserves their right to withdraw from the Union without consent of Congress.

Regardless, the White House petitions have no legal significance because it will take legislative acts of the states to effect a secession. And that would start a civil war with a national government determined not to lose political control over those states.

A legislative secession that is violently crushed by the US government can be contrasted with the freely-allowed secession of the Baltic States from the USSR, the secession of Taiwan from China, etc. The threat of retaliation and war by federal officials when the legislature of Texas considered a bill to throw the TSA out of Texas underlines the lack of liberty in America under the current regime.

The other thing is that no one really knows haw many people have really signed these petitions. I have a neighbor who has signed under various names petitions from at least 8 states.