Have Democrats who refuse to attend a duly-called special session of the Texas legislature abandoned their elected offices? Morally, yes — but legally?
Governor Greg Abbott doesn’t plan to wait long to get an answer to that question. He one-upped Attorney General Ken Paxton late yesterday and took the case directly to the state supreme court. Abbott wants the top-ranked Democrat in the lower chamber stripped of his office as the “ringleader” of the fleebaggers:
Gov. Greg Abbott asked the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday to remove House Democratic Caucus chair Rep. Gene Wu of Houston.
The lawsuit filed by the governor’s office comes hours after Attorney General Ken Paxton made a similar threat Tuesday afternoon. However, Paxton said he wouldn’t ask courts if lawmakers can be removed until Friday afternoon – the next time the House is scheduled to convene.
Abbott asked the Supreme Court to rule by Thursday at 5 p.m.
Paxton didn’t take too kindly to the maneuver, apparently:
On Tuesday evening, Paxton sent a letter to the Texas Supreme Court, writing that only the attorney general can file the type of petition Abbott submitted to the court.
Paxton actually raises two points, both of which will give the Texas Supreme Court plenty of room to push this political fight off. First, the House speaker has set Friday as a deadline for Democrats to return and avoid further legal remedies, so Abbott’s application interferes with the legislature’s ability to govern itself as a co-equal branch. That’s a legit point, although Paxton’s other argument on the exclusivity of an AG to bring these legal matters is at least conceptually dodgy. Attorneys general operate under executive authority, even those who are directly elected to office, and executive authority flows from the chief executive — the governor. Arguing that the AG has more authority than the governor, especially in a dispute between two branches of government, is at least odd.
In any case, Paxton isn’t asking the court to dismiss Abbott’s application, but to delay it until the Friday morning deadline passes and Paxton can join it:
The Speaker of the House has issued arrest warrants for truant members of the Texas House who have absconded to other states in order to compel their attendance at the ongoing special session. See In re Abbott, 628 S.W.3d 288, 292-98 (Tex. 2021) (orig. proceeding). The Speaker has set a Friday, August 8 deadline for those absent members to return to the Capitol. If those absent members do not comply with the Speaker’s deadline, the Attorney General intends to pursue all available judicial remedies, including those available through a quo warranto proceeding to declare the truant Legislators’ offices vacant on grounds of abandonment. As a result, the Court should not dismiss the Governor’s petition until the Speaker’s Friday deadline passes and the Attorney General can be heard on these weighty issues.
Maybe these two fellas should have thought about working together on this. Call me crazy, but …
Paxton’s letter will likely be well received by the court, not so much for its legal argument but because it will provide a pretext for what the court was likely to do anyway. Courts are loath to insert themselves into political disputes between the other two branches of government, at least not until they absolutely must intervene. They prefer to leave politics to the politicians and — mostly — confine their courts to issues of law.
If the court rules in favor of an Abbott/Paxton removal for abandonment of office, though, expect other such requests in rapid succession. Right now, the Texas House is ten seats short of a quorum, but vacancies reduce the number required for one. If enough seats are declared vacant, then the House can hold votes and do business whether or not the fleebaggers return. That will also necessitate special elections at some point to fill those vacancies, and Abbott could take his time in scheduling those. That will cost no small amount of money that Democrats might have spent otherwise in the midterm elections here, and voters may not be too sympathetic for fleebagging — especially if and when it proves futile.
Speaking of money, though, Abbott and Paxton may not be done with their legal maneuvers. ABC News reports that Robert “Beto” O’Rourke is funding the fleebagging effort, and that may run afoul of laws passed in the state making financial support for abandonment of office a felony:
Former United States Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s political action committee, Powered by People, has been a key funder of Texas Democrats in their mission to leave their home state in hopes of preventing Republicans from implementing a new Congressional map that they view as rigged.
Powered by People, a voter registration and mobilization group, has been donating to the Texas House Democratic Caucus — not members directly, or for any line-item expense — to help cover upfront costs for the group, such as lodging and transportation, an O’Rourke spokesperson told ABC News.
Looks like this might be a good test case for the laws passed in the wake of the 2021 fleebagging project.
Editor’s Note: The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.
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