Calexit has been refueled by Donald Trump's election and now supporters of the movement to have California secede from the union have submitted a proposed ballot measure to the California attorney general's office. It could be voted on in 2018.
Marcus Ruiz Evans, vice president of Yes California, told the Los Angeles Times that the election of Trump gave new life to a Calexit movement that had sat around for two years.
The new momentum is obviously political. California's big cities and college campuses have been wracked by sore-loser protests since the election and the state's celebrity and media elite were almost uniformly outraged by Trump's victory.
Evans said 13,000 volunteers hope to start collecting signatures after the attorney general's office gives the ballot measure a formal title and summary.
Experts say the only way to legally secede would be to change the federal Constitution, which requires the approval of Congress and 38 states, reported The Associated Press. The Constitution does not provide the succession.
A group in Texas wanting to secede from the union has been trying to gain the support from state lawmakers for years. In May at the Texas Republican Convention, an attempt to force a vote on legislation supporting the state leaving the United States failed, according to the Washington Post.
The Texas Tribune reported that Texas v. White in 1869 appeared to have settled the legality of states attempting to leave the union, with the Supreme Court ruling that individual states could not unilaterally secede from the United States.
How the Trump factor alters the Calexit movement remains to be seen. Until now, much of the disaffection has been economic:
"This independence referendum is about more than California subsidizing other states of this country," said the Yes California website. "It is about the right to self-determination and the concept of voluntary association, both of which are supported by constitutional and international law."
"It is about California taking its place in the world, standing as an equal among nations. We believe in two fundamental truths: (1) California exerts a positive influence on the rest of the world, and (2) California could do more good as an independent country than it is able to do as a just a U.S. state."