Why is it that the State of Texas has rights that other states don’t have?

Question

Land-use and water-use rights are under the sole authority of the State of Texas. The national government can’t condemn land under imminent domain, like they can in other states. Texas even has an Army (I’m not talking about the National Guard) and they can even have a Navy if they want. Why?

Why is it that the State of Texas has rights that other states don’t have?


Land-use and water-use rights are under the sole authority of the State of Texas. The national government can’t condemn land under imminent domain, like they can in other states. Texas even has an Army (I’m not talking about the National Guard) and they can have a Navy if they want. Texas has its State Guard and the National Guard in World War II they even had a few ships and the Navy still exists today. The Federal Government tried to condemn land under imminent domain a few years ago, in the Texas Panhandle and found out they couldn’t. Why?

Answer 1

Most of these answers are "sorta" right, but not quite. Indeed, Texas does have some interesting rights of its own (though it actually can't secede, that's a myth) but we're not the ONLY state with those rights. Texas was a part of the Spanish Empire beginning in 1519 and then became a part of Mexico in 1821 when Mexico declared independence. In 1836 we became our own nation and in 1846 we joined the United States.

Because Texas fought a revolution to gain independence from Mexico, we had a massive war debt when we entered the United States. In exchange for paying off that debt, Texas turned over a portion of its public lands (which once reached as far west as Santa Fe and as far north as Wyoming) to the federal government. Texas was granted sovereign control of its public lands with jurisdiction of the federal government via the Compromise of 1850. Thus Texas became what is called a "state land state" - there are no federally sovereign lands in Texas. There are 15 such state land states - the original 13 Colonies, Texas, and Hawai'i.

This gives us jurisdictional authority over oil and gas mineral rights, the beaches, river ways, and public lands in general. There is no Bureau of Land Management in Texas - that job is taken on by a state agency, the Texas General Land Office.

Texas has special powers because the state controls the land - the source of many, many laws, precedents, and issues of governance.

Answer 2

Again, because Texas was once an independent republic with its own army, etc. As for why it was allowed to retain the trappings of a nation while becoming a state, Texas had more leverage than the other former republics-turned-states in the US in that it bordered Mexico and Pres. Polk wanted Texas as a state to secure the border and expand US territory.

In the end, like most everything else that comes out of Texas, the extra "rights" are more talk than action: Texas' "army" and "navy" are more honorary clubs than actual fighting units. And as for the water and land use rights, you will find that many of the states out in the West have similar set ups deriving from when cattle ranchers and farmers would have literal wars to control water rights.

Don't mess with Texas? Already been done, with a predictable outcome (see Battle of Gettysburg, et al.).

Answer 3

Until December of 1845 Texas was not a part of the United States. It was a Republic of Texas.
On October 13, President James K. Polk offered Texas Statehood. An Election was held in Bexar County on December 29th and the vote was 136 for Statehood and 17 against.
On February 19, 1846, Texas President Anson Johnson, President of Texas, ordered the raising of the American Flag and Texas was the 28th state to enter the Union.
The rights that they have were carried over from the time they were a Republic.
I hope that this information is helpful. You see, At One time they did have an Army.

Answer 4

The United States gained the Republic of Texas (a sovreign state,) through treaty not conquest. Therefore Texas retained certain inalienable rights not contested by other territories or states. Hence appreciating a greater freedom from Centralized Government than most other states in our Fair Union.
God Bless America!

Answer 5

Right On Ted!
Texas has the right to secede from the US if it wants to, but that will not happen any time soon.
Also, the state of Texas can take the property from a resident thru imminent domain, but it must pay fair market value.

Answer 6

Texas was an independent republic before it became a state, so unlike other states it brought along some of that baggage.

But, since the feds already proved they can invade Texas (with the Oklahoma Nat'l Guard) with impunity, you can pretty much be assured that all of those old paper rights don't exist for Texas any longer.

Answer 7

Texas was taken by it's own army against Mexico and was turned down numerous times by the USA to join her but was Finlay made a state because Polk needed Texas to attack Mexico so she was able to dictate terms to Polk and wanted to keep her own army and navy Polk accepted these terms and that the answer to your question

Answer 8

I believe they lost all those rights - and the right to split into five smaller states - when they were re-admitted to the Union after the Civil War.

If not, it is a leftover from the time they were a sovereign nation, something Kansas never was.

They are smarter, better-looking and stronger than the rest of us, too - just ask one.

Answer 9

Because Texans are special beings with rights and abilities beyond those of normal Americans. Individually most are really good people, but taken as a group, they're full of gas.

Answer 10

because everything is bigger in texas