The Texas runaway Democrats just got a rude awakening and it seems their extended vacation may be coming to a swift end. After more than a month since more than 30 Texas state Democrats dramatically walked out of the legislature and fled to Washington, D.C. to withhold quorum on a voting bill the Texas Supreme Court ruled they can be arrested.
Some lower courts initially sided with Democrats and said that the Texas Constitution did not give Gov. Abbott power to compel the Democrats to return to the Lone Star state. However, the Texas Supreme Court has now reversed that ruling.
The Hill reports:
“The legal question before this Court concerns only whether the Texas Constitution gives the House of Representatives the authority to physically compel the attendance of absent members. We conclude that it does, and we therefore direct the district court to withdraw the TRO,” Justice Jimmy Blacklock said in the state Supreme Court’s opinion, according to KXAN Austin.
Earlier this summer, Texas House Democrats fled Texas to deny the lower chamber the quorum needed to vote on an election bill that critics say would curb voting access in the state. One hundred members need to be present in order for a quorum to be formed.
If passed, the GOP-backed legislation would ban around-the-clock voting centers, straight ticket voting and voting facilities in outdoor structures. The use of ballot drop boxes would also be limited under the bill.
House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) had signed arrest warrants for the 52 Democrats in an effort to compel them back to the state House, but those arrest warrants were temporarily blocked by lower court rulings.
Don’t tell me. Show me. As they say in Missouri.
I’m a native Texan and I will not support nor tolerate malicious, corrupt scoundrels to destroy my state, nor my Constitution.
Finally someone gets it right!
About time their job awaits them also, deduct their time away from the job the citizens voted them in for. Hopefully this is remembered at the next election.
Arrested – but what is the penalty> jail time? slap on the wrist? I think they should be forced out of office for dereliction of duty.
Here is an idea: when these cowardly Dems are actually arrested, have them imprisoned with the “undocumented” that have been apprehended at the border. Allow them to have a mask and we shall see just how adamant they are about their convictions as well as how much they trust the mask….
“My object all sublime I shall achieve in time, to let the punishment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime…”