"Governor Abbott and GOP Governors Stand Firm on Texas Border Sovereignty"

Republican governors, led by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, are invoking a legal theory similar to the one used by slave states to justify secession before the Civil War, in their conflict with the Biden administration over the southern border. They argue that the federal government has violated the "compact" with the states, justifying state usurpation of federal authority at the border. This rhetoric, reminiscent of the Confederacy's conception of the Constitution as a mere compact, is being used to legitimize nullification and dehumanization, and has led to armed standoffs between state and federal law enforcement at the border.