What if Texas were to split up into five smaller States? This scenario, though it may sound strange–outlandish even–, is not that far-fetched; see, for example, this thought-provoking paper “Let’s Mess with Texas” by Vasan Kesavan (an independent scholar) and Michael Stokes Paulson (a law professor at the University of Minnesota). As an aside, this paper was the subject of one of Malcolm Gladwell’s “Revisionist History” podcasts (see here).