The speaker of the Texas House of Representatives signed 52 civil arrest warrants on Tuesday after the House authorized law enforcement officers to round up and potentially arrest absentee Democrats who fled the state to block action on election voting legislation.
The House voted 80 to 12 Tuesday to force the protesting lawmakers to return, just hours after the Texas Supreme Court cleared the way for the House to order them back to the chamber to secure a quorum.
The warrants will be delivered to the House sergeant-at-arms on Wednesday morning, according to Phelan spokesman Enrique Marquez.
The move will likely further inflame partisan tension in the House.
Rep. Chris Turner, who chairs the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said Tuesday that it was “fully within our rights as legislators to break quorum to protect our constituents.”
“Texas House Democrats are committed to fighting with everything we have against Republicans’ attacks on our freedom to vote,” he said in a statement.
The Democrats have made the claim that the Republican election reform bill would keep minorities from voting. Governor Abbott has refuted the claims by Democrats and has threatened to arrest them.
Governor Abbott made an announcement about this on Fox News:
Watch it here: Youtube/KENS 5
The warrants were signed late Tuesday after a vote of 80-12 to force the Democrats to return to the Texas statehouse.
Earlier, the Texas Supreme Court authorized the use of warrants to get the Democrats back to Texas to vote on the bill:
The Texas Supreme Court has ruled against a prior activist Obama-appointed judge who ruled the runaway Democrats can’t be arrested when they return to Texas.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted out the decision by the Texas Supreme Court calling out the “activist judge”:
#BREAKING: In response to my mandamus filing, the Texas Supreme Court just entered an order stopping the activist judge in Austin, TX ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/W9qXMGRZF0
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) August 10, 2021
Houston’s KHOU reports:
Watch it here: Youtube/KHOU11
The AWOL Democrats ran away from their duties in the Texas legislature in mid-July, and Governor Abbott threatened to arrest them:
Texas Democrats decided to take a little vacation to DC boarding private jets and staying at a $200 a night DC hotel. Not so fast! Texas Governor Greg Abbott just threatened (video below) to arrest the 58 Democrats when they get home to Texas. The problem is they are willing to stay in DC for 30 days.
During an interview with CNN, Texas State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer said the group of 58 are willing to stay in D.C. for the full 30-day legislative session and risk arrest to break the quorum: “This is the risk that we take to stand up for democracy.”
“We are elected by the constituents to be their voice … We have to have the courage, we have to have conviction, and sometimes a little bit of defiance,” Texas House Democrat Trey Martinez Fischer says on leaving the state to block Republicans from passing voting restrictions. pic.twitter.com/AJykfcjbdS
— New Day (@NewDay) July 13, 2021
Here’s a photo of the group while exiting the $200 a night hotel:
And here’s a photo of the said group hopped on private planes to DC, taking the photo below, complete with a case of Miller Lite beer:
Sources: 100 Percent Fed Up, LA Times, Dallas News, KIRO 7
dan