Yes California  Yes California is a Californian political action committee that promotes the Independence of the state of California from the United States. It was founded in 2015 by Louis J. Marinelli, a New Yorker living in Russia, and its efforts have been supported by the Russian government. The organization promoted a proposed initiative to be placed on the 2019 California state ballot, which, if it had passed, would have required an independence plebiscite to be held in March 2019 on the question of California's independence. In order to comply with federal law, however, it would have still required an amendment to the United States Constitution. In January 2017, the office of California Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave its approval for the organization to gather petition signatures to put the initiative on the ballot. The organization then halted their efforts later in April, stating that they want to re-tool their proposal and campaign. Yes California formed in August 2015, succeeding the Sovereign California campaign. The campaign adopted its name and logo from Yes Scotland, a campaign group from the 2014 independence referendum in Scotland. The campaign has earned the nicknames "Caleavefornia", "Califrexit", and "Calexit" (after Brexit, the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union). As of 2016, the campaign president was Louis J. Marinelli, a New Yorker living in Russia. The vice president (as of 2016) is Marcus Ruiz Evans. Both men are former Republicans and Marinelli says he voted for Donald Trump. The last instance of secession in the United States was in 1861, a precursor to the formation of the Confederate States of America, when 11 states declared their independence from the Union. The US Constitution lacks provision for secession. The Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. White in 1869 that no state can unilaterally leave the Union. Secession would require a US Constitutional amendment approved by two-thirds majorities in the US House of Representatives and Senate, then ratification by 38 state legislatures. Analysts consider California's secession improbable. The hashtag #Calexit trended in social media as the campaign gained attention in the wake of the election of Donald Trump to the presidency in November 2016; California gave Hillary Clinton 61.5% of the vote to Trump's 33.2%. Marinelli asserted this was evidence of the political divide between the state and nation, saying California is more progressive than the rest of the country and that Californians were offended by Trump's statements about minorities. The campaign staged protests outside the Capitol building in Sacramento after the November 2016 election, though its organizers asserted the protests had been planned months in advance and would have been held, regardless of who won the election.