Governor Abbott Threatens to Remove Fleeing Democrats from Office (TX)
Texas Dems also skipped town in 2021 to avoid a vote, and several caught COVID-19 in DC to keep Abortion legal in State
Texas Dems also skipped town in 2021 to avoid a vote, and several caught COVID-19 in DC to keep Abortion legal in State
Governor Greg Abbott escalated the political standoff over redistricting on August 3rd, threatening to remove Democratic lawmakers from office and pursue felony charges against those who fled the state to break quorum on a Republican-backed congressional map.
In a strongly-worded letter released hours after at least 51 House Democrats departed for Illinois and California, Abbott declared that “real Texans do not run from a fight” and gave the absent lawmakers until 3:00 PM Monday to return or face removal from the Texas House.
“This truancy ends now,” Abbott wrote, citing Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 which concluded that legislators who intentionally break quorum may have “abandoned” their offices, creating vacancies the governor can fill under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution.
Legal Threat Based on Office Abandonment Theory
Abbott’s letter relies on a legal theory that willful quorum-breaking constitutes abandonment of office. The Attorney General’s opinion states that “whether a specific legislator abandoned his or her office such that a vacancy occurred will be a fact question for a court” and that “through a quo warranto action, a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment.”
“The absconded Democrat House members were elected to meet and vote on legislation—not to prevent votes that may not go their way,”…