Rep. Gene Wu
The Texas Supreme Court rejected Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to remove Houston Rep. Gene Wu and other Democratic lawmakers from office Friday, saying that the Legislature was able to secure their attendance and restore a quorum last summer without involvement from the court.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock — a Republican and former Abbott aide — cited legal precedent in which the courts “have uniformly recognized that it is not their role to resolve disputes between the other two branches that those branches can resolve for themselves.”
“The courts’ institutional ‘reluctance … to involve themselves in contests of factional political power,’ a reluctance we reiterate and reinforce today, is a check on the judicial power ‘of ancient standing,’ not an optional preference we are at liberty to discard,” Blacklock wrote.
Friday’s ruling from the all-Republican Supreme Court is a setback for Abbott, who vowed to expel any members who refused to return to Texas to pass the GOP’s new congressional map. The unusual mid-decade redistricting arose under pressure from President Donald Trump, who sought to shore up the GOP’s narrow majority in the U.S. House by having Texas lawmakers draw new districts designed to give Republicans five additional seats in Texas.
More than 50 Democrats, including Wu — the House Democratic leader — left the state in August to shut down the Legislature and stall passage of the GOP’s map. Abbott filed a lawsuit to remove Wu, a claim Attorney General Ken Paxton argued he didn’t have standing to bring forward. Paxton later filed his own lawsuit against 13 lawmakers, including Wu. The court consolidated the cases and ruled on them together.
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No Texas lawmaker has ever been removed from office solely for breaking quorum. Never in U.S. history has a governor gotten the courts to remove a member of a legislature for breaking quorum.
Wu on Friday declared victory after challenging Abbott to “come and take it” in August.
“Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court said: No. The Constitution does not let a governor erase voters’ choices when their choices are inconvenient to him,” Wu said in a statement. “Abbott was wrong, weak and after all his bluster he couldn’t come and take a damn thing.”
See here for some background. This was all very dumb and another temper tantrum by our increasingly addled Governor. Not really much else to say. The Chron has more.