AUSTIN, Texas (CN) — After leaving the Texas Capital on July 12 to break quorum for a second time this year, Democratic state Representatives flew to Washington D.C., where they have since been lobbying members of Congress to pass federal voting legislation.
In reply, their Republican colleagues took action to bring the Democrats back to the capitol, for instance by invoking a “call of the House,” a procedural move that gives Texas law enforcement officials the authority to arrest any absent lawmakers and return them to the chamber.
The Democrats broke quorum — reducing the attendance of the House below the two-thirds majority necessary to vote on legislation — and fled the state to challenge state election legislation at the core of this fight. Senate Bill 1 seeks to ban drive-through and 24-hour voting options and expands poll watchers' authority at polling locations. The bill would also bar election officials from sending vote-by-mail applications to people who did not initially request one. State Senator Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) says the bill is about stopping ballot harvesters and “making it easier to vote and harder to cheat.”
Originally, Senate Bill 7 was the first form of the bill filed during the regular legislative session. It turned into Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 3 during the first special session that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called; Abbott has since called a second special session, and Senate Bill 1 has been re-filed.
In their first class-action lawsuit, Texas Democratic allege that Abbott, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), and State Rep. James White (R-Woodville) “have embarked on a course of conduct which is intended to violate [their] state and federal constitutional rights.” More than 50 Democrats fled the Capitol in July; 22 appear as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The Democrats allege that Abbott, Phelan and White have denied the legislators their their First, Fifth and Fourteenth rights under the U.S. Constitution. Their petition states that the three have worked to prevent the Democrats from “peacefully [assembling] and redress their grievances, [speaking] publicly about the exercise of their constitutional rights and [their] freedom from arrest, except upon probable cause.”
In their complaint, they Democrats reference comments made by Gov. Abbott to KVUE, an Austin ABC affiliate.
“As soon as they come back in the State of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas capitol until they get their job done,” Abbott said in the KVUE interview.
Nineteen Democrats, some listed in the first suit, filed a second petition on Monday in Travis County District Court against Abbott and Phelan, seeking injunctive relief from the “call of the House” order that rogue legislators be arrested and returned to the capitol.
The court issued a 14-day restraining order against Abbott and Phelan’s ability to command the arrest of any absent lawmakers.
The restraining order stated that “it clearly appears from the facts set forth in the plaintiffs’ original petition and the affidavits and evidence attached thereto that defendants have erroneously interpreted Texas law and legislative rules to … call for quorum.”
With the restraining order in place protecting Democrats from arrest, Abbott and Phelan filed a motion with the Texas Supreme Court to overturn the Travis County District Court’s decision. They believe that compelling attendance is their duty and the lower court was wrong to interfere.
For now, Democrats have an opportunity to return to the state without fear of being arrested. They have been in Washington for 28 days as of Monday.
According to the petition, Democrats argue that Abbott’s and Phelan’s “interpretation of the law and use of the word ‘arrest’ is incorrect and contrary to the law.” Texas law gives state and local law enforcement officials the authority to conduct an arrest if a person has committed a crime or plans to commit a crime.
The Democratic lawmakers argue that they are exercising their First Amendment rights and have not committed a crime.
“Therefore, regardless of what the House Rules say in housekeeping provisions about quorum math, Texas law enforcement officials have no power to ‘arrest’ plaintiffs in a criminal sense,” the petition reads.
Directly challenging House Republicans' vote to invoke the “call of the House,” the Democrats assert that if they were arrested and brought back to the capitol, this would deprive them of their right to liberty.
Also on Monday, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously decided to not overturn Governor Abbott’s action to defund the state legislature. After Democrats staged their first quorum break during the regular session to kill Republicans’ first elections bill, Senate Bill 7, the Governor retaliated by line-item vetoing the legislature's funding in the state’s budget.
“Funding should not be provided for those who quit their jobs early,” Abbott wrote in his memo to the state’s high court.
In June, Texas House Democratic Chair Chris Turner and more than 60 of his Democratic colleagues in the House filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Texas Supreme Court. Their goal was for the high court to overturn Abbott’s action, arguing that he was canceling out a co-equal branch of the state’s government.
The Democrats accuse the Governor of violating the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. Abbott, in a post to Twitter, said, “the veto is on solid legal ground.”
The court, which is composed of all Republican members, ruled that the Texas Constitution gives the governor the power to line-item veto parts of a bill. Furthermore, because Abbott has called for two special sessions and added legislative funding to the agenda, he has given lawmakers the ability to reinstate the funding. For these reasons, the court explained, Abbott’s veto will remain and it is up to lawmakers to send a bill funding the legislature to his desk.
Over the weekend, Abbott’s first-called special session ended and his second began. At the core of either special session lies Republicans’ hopes to change Texas voting laws and enact several conservative priorities.
New to the second special session agenda is a charge for Texas lawmakers to change quorum requirements. Abbott and other Republican lawmakers seek to change the Texas constitution to define a quorum as a simple majority, and not the current two-thirds standard.
It remains unclear as to when Democrats will return to the state. Without a quorum, the House is unable to vote on bills or refer them to committees. The Texas Senate still maintains a quorum and can conduct legislative business, but any bill passed out of the chamber and sent to the House must await the absent legislator's return before continuing their path to becoming law.
Republican lawmakers voted Monday to issue another “call of the House” on Monday evening, extending their order to the second special session. The act sustains an order to Texas law enforcement to arrest any lawmakers outside of the chamber and return them there. For those lawmakers still in Austin, the order means they will be locked inside the House chamber, unable to leave until the legislative body adjourns.
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