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BumRushDaShow

(160,105 posts) Mon Aug 4, 2025, 04:20 PM Aug 4

Texas House reconvenes without quorum as Democrats flee state to thwart Republicans' redistricting plan

Source: The Guardian

Mon 4 Aug 2025 16.07 EDT
Last modified on Mon 4 Aug 2025 16.08 EDT

Texas Democrats in the state legislature denied its speaker a legislative quorum Monday by leaving the state, forestalling plans proposed by the White House to redistrict Texas’s congressional lines to more greatly favor Republicans.

When the legislature gaveled in at 3pm local time on Monday, at least 51 Democrats were in Illinois, a legislative conference in Boston, New York and elsewhere. Democrats hold 62 of the 150 seats in the legislature’s lower chamber, so as long as at least 51 members remain out of Austin, the Texas legislature cannot move forward with any votes, including a plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps to give Republicans five more seats in Congress.

Texas governor Greg Abbott has threatened arrest, fines, felony charges of bribery and expulsion against the lawmakers. “Real Texans do not run from a fight,”Abbott said in a statement Sunday. “This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3pm on Monday, August 4, 2025.”

Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who fled his own impeachment hearings and refused a court order to release his travel records after speaking at the rally in Washington that preceded the January 6 insurrection, has described wayward Democratic legislators as “cowards”. The Texas House Democratic Caucus said in response: “Come and take it.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/04/texas-democrats-republicans-maps

Keep this in mind (from the above excerpts) -

Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who fled his own impeachment hearings and refused a court order to release his travel records after speaking at the rally in Washington that preceded the January 6 insurrection, has described wayward Democratic legislators as “cowards”.

Projection.

4 replies

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Highlight:

Texas House reconvenes without quorum as Democrats flee state to thwart Republicans' redistricting plan (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Aug 4 OP

Texas House votes to track down, arrest Democratic lawmakers who left the state... ultralite001 Aug 4 #1

So, it allows "quorum-forcing"? Does this mean, they can just create a new temporary quorum? LeftInTX Aug 4 #2

"track down and arrest more than 50 Democratic lawmakers" FBaggins Aug 4 #3

They adjourned due to lack of quorum. LeftInTX Aug 4 #4

ultralite001

(2,050 posts)

1. Texas House votes to track down, arrest Democratic lawmakers who left the state...

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Mon Aug 4, 2025, 04:46 PM

Aug 4

They will not face civil or criminal charges from the arrests. The warrants apply only within state lines, making them largely symbolic as most of the legislators in question decamped to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts to forestall passage of the GOP’s proposed redraw of Texas’ congressional map.

The Texas House voted 85-6 to track down and arrest more than 50 Democratic lawmakers who were not present when the chamber gaveled in at 3 p.m. Monday. House Speaker Dustin Burrows said he would immediately sign civil warrants for each of the legislators, empowering the chamber’s sergeant-at-arms and state troopers to arrest and bring them to the Capitol.

The House used the same tactic to try to force Democrats back to work in 2021, when a majority of them left for Washington, D.C., to protest GOP voting restrictions. Some of the lawmakers challenged the warrants in court, obtaining an injunction against arrests that was later struck down by the Texas Supreme Court.

While the Texas Constitution “enables ‘quorum-breaking’ by a minority faction of the legislature, it likewise authorizes ‘quorum-forcing’ by the remaining members,” the court ruled.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/texas-democrats-house-warrants-arrest-quorum-break/