“Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Texas to formally pursue judicial declarations that 13 Texas House seats have been vacated due to continued unlawful absences by Democrat legislators who failed to meet the return deadline set by Speaker Dustin Burrows. ‘The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,’ said Attorney General Paxton. ‘These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold. Their out-of-state rebellion cannot go unchecked, and the business of Texas must go on. 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,'” says corrupt Attorney General Ken Paxton in a statement.
“House Democrats remain willfully absent from the State of Texas, choosing instead to engage in politically motivated grandstanding from out-of-state locations. Their conduct represents a flagrant abandonment of office and a betrayal of the voters who entrusted them with the duty to represent Texans in the legislative chamber. This initial lawsuit concentrates on 13 Democrat members who made incriminating public statements regarding their refusal to return, essentially confirming in their own words the very grounds for this legal action. Texas law provides the Attorney General with explicit authority to represent the State in quo warranto actions and to appear before the Texas Supreme Court in matters where the State has a direct interest,” the statement continued.
A few things: First, where are all the Fox News segments starring the Dem voters who elected these legislators screaming in outrage over the dereliction of duty? If they can’t find any then how about people who lost their homes and/or loved ones in last month’s deadly flooding in Kerr County?
Addressing the disaster was the original purpose for the special session until Abbott obeyed convicted felon President Trump’s commands and bootstrapped on the power grab… and then the agenda was set to vote on the gerrymander first and flood relief second, because MAGA priorities.
Second, Paxton and Abbott were in office the last time this happened in 2021 – and they didn’t move against the Dems – meaning for the second time in day the legal concept of acquiescence will need to be mentioned here in regard to whether some corrupt shitbag lawyer can successfully pursue the Orange God Emperor’s goals in a Texas court. For all the many other constitutional hurdles removing the Dems from office for simply acting within the current rules of the game of a sovereign legislature in the United States that’s another one that could be tricky to explain to a judge: Why it’s a fireable offense now but wasn’t then when they broke quorum over that voting rights crackdown.
Third: Even a favorable ruling removing them from office is the end of the gerrymander as a legal fight over whether the seats are actually vacant would rag well into next year, per the Texas Tribune.
It’s just mutually assured destruction. All these state districts are gerrymandered too, so pretty much every single Dem will be replaced by another Dem – if not the vacated former members themselves.