County on the Illinois side of St. Louis considers joining Show-Me State

Not your typical border dispute. 

A new legal opinion from the Illinois Attorney General states that Jersey County, IL does NOT have the authority to secede from the State of Illinois and join Missouri. 

The citizens in that county reportedly have been exploring ways to break Illinois into two pieces, with Democrat-leaning areas in the Chicago region becoming one state, and Republican-dominated areas in downstate Illinois becoming another, as reported by a St. Louis newspaper. 

The county is located across the Mississippi River from Missouri near St. Louis. 

Similar discussions have been held in the states of Oregon and in California.