By Darlene McCormick Sanchez
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court on Aug. 8, asking the court to declare the House seats of 13 Texas Democrats vacant due to “unlawful absences.”
Paxton filed the lawsuit shortly after Democrats broke a deadline set by Texas Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows to return to the Capitol on Friday.
“I have asked the Texas Supreme Court to declare what has been clear from the beginning: that the runaway members have officially vacated their offices in the Texas House,” Paxton said in a press release.
The lawsuit is aimed at 13 Democratic members who stated publicly they refused to return, “confirming in their own words the very grounds for this legal action,” according to the press release.
Those named include the following Texas Democratic representatives: Ron Reynolds, Vikki Goodwin, Gina Hinojosa, James Talarico, Lulu Flores, Mihaela Plesa, Suleman Lalani, Chris Turner, Ana-Maria Ramos, Jessica Gonzalez, John Bucy III, Christina Morales, and Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic Caucus chairman.
Paxton said Texas law gives him the authority to represent the state in “quo warranto actions” and to appear before the Texas Supreme Court in matters of direct state interest.
More than 50 state Democrats fled the state to derail Republican plans to redraw the state’s Congressional map before the midterm elections.
“When members of the legislature disregard arrest warrants, refuse to perform their duties, and announce that they intend to prevent the legislature from exercising its constitutional responsibilities, they have, through words and conduct, demonstrated an intent to relinquish and abandon their offices,” the lawsuit states.
Such legal action is rarely used.
Warranto petitions are typically used to challenge a person’s right to hold a public or corporate office or to revoke a corporation’s charter.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also filed a warranto petition on Aug. 5 with the state’s high court, naming Wu as a respondent.
The governor’s lawsuit alleged that House Democrats abdicated their official duties by refusing to show up for work.
The state justices gave Wu until Friday to respond.
Paxton and Burrows took steps to enforce arrest warrants in other states, while the attorney general also began investigations into Powered by People and Texas Majority PAC for allegedly “operating an illegal financial influence scheme to bribe Democrats into breaking quorum.”
Also, the fleeing Democrats potentially face felony charges and fines of $500 per day that must be paid from their own funds.
The fight between Democrats and Republicans started when the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent Abbott a letter on July 7 raising concerns that four congressional districts in the Houston and Dallas areas were unconstitutional because of “racial gerrymandering.”
Current boundaries run afoul of the Voting Rights Act by relying on racial demographics to group minority voters into “coalition districts,” where no single racial group forms a majority, according to the DOJ.
Abbott added redrawing the congressional map onto the special session agenda, prompting the Democrats to purposefully break quorum and grind the legislature to a halt.
