Hey, remember when I said yesterday that there was still no quorum and not much had happened? That was then, this is now.
The Supreme Court will take its sweet time in deciding on those quo warranto filings to expel 13 quorum busters.
When House Democratic lawmakers left Texas to delay passage of a new congressional map, Gov. Greg Abbott took the unprecedented step of asking the Texas Supreme Court to expel their caucus leader from office. And he wanted it done quickly, asking the high court to rule just 48 hours after he filed.
On Monday, the court rebuked that proposed timeline, setting a three-week period of briefings from both sides. The schedule, which the court noted is expedited, anticipates final responses to be filed on Sept. 4, more than two weeks after the current special session is set to end.
Abbott touted this as a win, saying on social media that the briefing schedule brings the “ring leader of the derelict Democrats … closer to consequences.”
The high court consolidated Abbott’s suit against Houston Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, with a similar case from Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is asking to remove Wu and 12 other members. While Abbott and Paxton initially sparred over who had the legal standing to bring these suits, Paxton said Monday that he looked forward to fighting alongside Abbott to “hold these cowards accountable.”
[…]
Wu’s lawyers argue he is representing the will of his constituents by leaving the state to prevent legislation from passing that they oppose.
Wu “has not died and has not been expelled from the House by the constitutionally prescribed means: a 2/3 vote of the House,” his lawyers said in a brief. “His presence in another state is not a voluntary resignation — as his opposition to this petition makes evident.”
The Texas Supreme Court is made up entirely of Republicans and two-thirds of the members were initially appointed by Abbott. Two of them, including the chief justice, previously served as the governor’s general counsel.
“They have their own independent authority, of course, but it does put them in a tough political position,” Andrew Cates, an Austin-based attorney and expert on Texas ethics law, previously told The Texas Tribune. “They don’t want to be in the position of potentially biting the hand that initially fed them.”
Pardon my French, but if any of these Justices are afraid to make an honest ruling because Greg Abbott might be mad at them, then they have no fucking business on any bench anywhere. I would like to believe they have at least enough respect for the law, and for themselves, to do the right thing.
Elsewhere in the courts, Ken Paxton has turned it up to 11 against Beto O’Rourke.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday asked a Tarrant County judge to jail former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, in another escalation in Republicans’ broader effort to put an end to Texas Democrats’ walkout over a new congressional map.
Paxton sued O’Rourke and his political group, Powered by People, last week, arguing that the group was deceptively fundraising for and illegally supporting Texas Democrats’ walkout. Tarrant County District Judge Megan Fahey quickly granted Paxton’s request to temporarily block O’Rourke and Powered by People from fundraising for Democrats or spending money to cover their expenses.
On Tuesday, Paxton claimed that O’Rourke had violated that temporary injunction at a Fort Worth rally Saturday, when he told the crowd, “There are no refs in this game, fuck the rules.”
According to a video of the event, O’Rourke appeared to say that phrase after urging the crowd to support retaliatory redistricting in other blue states — not in relation to the injunction.
Paxton’s motion also cited social media posts by O’Rourke after the injunction came down, in which the Democrat said he was “still raising and rallying to stop the steal of 5 congressional seats in Texas,” and included a donation link.
The attorney general said O’Rourke “repeatedly solicited donations” at the Fort Worth rally by urging the crowd to text “FIGHT” to a number that would automatically respond with a link to a donation platform.
Paxton’s motion asks the judge to imprison O’Rourke for the duration of the lawsuit, and to fine the Democrat $500 for each violation of the injunction.
Putting aside the dumb misstatement of Beto’s declaration, is that even a thing? Like, does a civil court judge have the power to just lock someone up? What is even going on here?
O’Rourke filed his own lawsuit against Paxton Friday in El Paso district court, alleging that the attorney general was engaging in a “fishing expedition, constitutional rights be damned,” and asking the judge to block Paxton’s investigation into the organization’s practices.
“Paxton is trying to shut down Powered by People, one of the largest voter registration organizations in the country, because our volunteers fight for voting rights and free elections, the kind of work that threatens the hold that Paxton, [President Donald] Trump and Abbott have on power in Texas,” O’Rourke said in a statement responding to Friday’s injunction.
I still haven’t seen much detail in regard to Beto’s counter-suit, and I have not seen it reported anywhere when there might be a hearing or a briefing schedule, let alone a ruling. As such, I have no idea what to make of this.
Meanwhile, in other curious matters.
Republican state leaders have made a strong show of going after the Texas House members who are missing in action to block GOP redistricting, launching legal challenges to vacate their seats and dispatching state troopers and the FBI to track them down.
Over the weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott even posted “WANTED” flyers on social media with the faces of several runaway Democrats. “If found: Return to Texas State Capitol,” they read.
But for all the effort, officials have seemed unwilling to actually haul in absent Democrats who didn’t flee the state with the rest of the group – a hesitation that is starting to aggravate the party’s most hardline members.
“There are three in Houston,” state Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park told the Texas Tribune last week about potential Democratic members on the run. “It just takes guts to go get them.”
“We need to bring in whoever we can find, wherever we can find them,” Cain added in an interview Monday.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows has issued civil arrest warrants that allow state troopers to compel the return of absent members found to be in Texas. None has been executed to date.
“The House has deputized dozens of officers and dispatched them across the state,” Burrows said Monday. “They are set up outside members’ homes, conducting surveillance, knocking on doors, calling their phones multiple times a day. So far, no one’s home. But the search continues, and it will not stop.”
[…]
Experts said Republicans are almost certainly reluctant to force Democrats back to Austin, especially since many of the missing members are elderly and include veteran lawmakers like Thompson, the first Black woman elected to the Texas House. The speaker typically calls for the House chamber doors to be locked to maintain quorum, meaning doing so would also present a number of logistical hurdles.
“The campaigns aren’t stupid,” said Bryan Gervais, a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio who studies political communication. “Who are the type of voters that show up to midterm elections? It’s older voters. So the images of, even if they’re Democratic, legislators being dragged out, forced out, you know? That doesn’t play well.”
Gervais said political consultants are likely mulling the question of how to project confidence while also tempering that to ensure there’s no backlash from Republicans who may oppose them actually arresting members. Several Republicans are also actively fundraising off of the quorum break, meaning there’s an advantage to it going unresolved.
“We want to look tough. We want to look like we’re being aggressive here to please our folks in Washington,” Gervais said of the Republicans, “but at the same time, it’s (arrests are) probably a step too far where now you’ve created a bunch of attack ads that are going to play really, really well among senior citizens.”
Burrows and other top Republicans are in a difficult position, said a person familiar with GOP leadership discussions during the Democrats’ 2021 quorum break. They want to broadcast that they are in control of the situation, but at the same time, they don’t have a lot of options politically.
“Do you really want to put an elderly person in handcuffs?” said the person, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss internal GOP strategy. “And then once you get them to the Capitol, what are you going to do? Are you going to feed them? Where are they going to change their clothes? I mean, logistically, it’s impracticable.”
“No one’s being serious about arresting them,” the person added. “That’s what the grassroots wants, that’s what Twitter wants — it’s just not a reality.”
Reality walked out a long time ago. DPS may not be in the business of actually arresting anyone involved here, but that hasn’t stopped them from buzzing around some lawmakers’ homes and families. And it must be noted that the fundraising is abundant while the drama is happening.
Also happening:
The Texas Senate approved new congressional lines on Tuesday in a rare mid-decade redistricting effort that could aid Republicans in their effort to keep control of the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 election.
The vote was 19-2, with nine Democrats absent after exiting the Senate floor moments after the maps were taken up, a show of protest against what they framed as a “corrupt process.”
“This mid-decade redistricting isn’t about fair representation—it’s about politicians picking their voters instead of voters choosing their leaders,” the Senate Democratic Caucus said in a statement. “And it doesn’t stop here. If they can gerrymander now, they can and will do it before every election.”
The exit wasn’t enough to deny a quorum, as their counterparts have done in the Texas House. Dozens of Democrats in the lower chamber have decamped to Illinois and other parts of the country, bringing work in the House to a halt for a second week as the chamber continued to lack the minimum headcount needed to conduct business.
“We stand in solidarity with our House Democrat brothers and sisters,” said Houston Sen. Carol Alvarado, the Senate Democratic leader. “Our options here to push back and fight in the Senate are pretty limited, so we’re using every tool that we have.”
Getting two more Senators on board so there’s more than one quorum to break would be a more powerful statement. The fines that House Dems face are the result of a House rule, though obviously the Senate could adopt a similar rule…once they have a quorum again. And it’s not like Dems get to do much on Senate committees anyway.
So if there’s still no quorum on Friday – and barring anything super weird there won’t be – then Speaker Burrows will adjourn sine die and Greg Abbott will call special session #2. And we’ll see what happens from there.
Other ancillary items of note:
– I do not want to see Doggett versus Casar for the rights to the one Austin-centered district. I actually think that Doggett is right that Casar would be the stronger candidate to run in the gerrymandered CD35, which as previously noted would likely perform as a tossup. But that’s not Doggett’s call to make or even really to suggest, and from a “Democrats are too old and too protective of their older legislators” perspective is a terrible look. Which I’m sure the Republicans had in mind from the beginning – see also the possible Al Green versus whoever wins the CD18 special election matchup.
– There’s apparently a poll that says a “majority of Texas voters don’t support the Republican redistricting effort”. Which is nice, albeit more than a little vague. But let’s be honest, we’ve seen a million polls like this that suggests some Republican-favored position is similarly unpopular with Texas voters. That has yet to make any difference, as the voters have tended to prioritize other matters when they do vote. This is not to say that this will always be the case – this fight is as much about messaging as anything else – just that we would do well to keep some perspective.
– I will wrap up with this:
See you Friday, assuming nothing else of great interest happens with all this.
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