Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who called a special session to enact onerous new voter suppression laws based upon Trump’s Big Lie, was thwarted by Texas Democrats who fled to Washington, D.C. (Texodus) to plead their case with Democrats in Congress that they must pass the For The People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, or all hope is lost in Texas.
The special session ended on Friday with no action, a win for Texas Democratic legislators, for the second time. Earlier they thwarted the waning day of the regular session by breaking quorum, as time ran out on the session.
On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the second special legislative session would begin at noon Saturday — and with an expanded agenda. Gov. Greg Abbott announces special legislative session starting Saturday, covering elections, federal COVID-19 funding, quorum rules:
The 17-item agenda still includes well-known Abbott priorities like the election bill that caused House Democrats to flee the state at the start of the first special session, which ended Friday. But it also features six additions, including the spending of federal COVID-19 relief funds and potentially changing the legislative rules regarding quorums.
There is also a new item on public education during the pandemic, an increasingly salient issue as parents prepare to send their kids back to school with the virus on the rise again in Texas.
None of the proposals, however, can reach Abbott’s desk unless the Democrats return from Washington, D.C., and they had not revealed their plans for after Friday. Abbott had vowed to call special session after special session until they come back and complete his agenda, which he reiterated in a statement on Thursday.
[T]he House Democratic Caucus did not have an immediate reaction to Abbott’s rollout of the second special session.
With Thursday’s announcement, Abbott is following through on a statement he made toward the start of the quorum break, saying he would make sure the second special began the day after the first one ends. For the second special session, lawmakers will have to start over on every item, including filing bills and holding committee hearings.
Democrats and Republicans remain at a stalemate over the elections bill, which would restrict local voting options and place new statewide rules on early voting and mail-in ballots. GOP leaders have suggested they are not in the mood to further tweak the bill, while House Democrats have abandoned hope for meaningful negotiations while using their time in the nation’s capital to advocate for federal voting rights legislation.
The start of the second special session is approaching amid continued uncertainty over the fate of paychecks for over 2,100 legislative staffers. Abbott vetoed their pay after House Democrats staged a walkout over the elections bill in the regular session that ended in May, and the funding was set to start Sept. 1.
Just like an authoritarian autocratic despot (the Texas constitution actually mandates a weak governor system).
The reinstatement of that funding remains on the agenda for the second special session.
The new items on the call also include changing the timeline for the 2022 primary elections. The latter item is likely a nod to the fact that the primaries will have to be pushed back due to delays in the redistricting process.
The item on changing the rules around quorums comes after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called on Abbott to add something like it to the agenda for the second special session. The lieutenant governor wants to lower the threshold for each chamber to conduct business from two-thirds of members to a simple majority. That would require a state constitutional amendment and thus a two-thirds vote in each chamber.
As for education during the pandemic, Abbott is asking lawmakers to pass legislation that “in-person learning is available for any student whose parent wants it.” He also wants legislation that ensures that masks and vaccinations are not mandatory in schools, which he has already ordered through executive action.
Just like Florida and Arizona.
One other new item seems to reflect a longtime priority of the business community that has failed in recent regular sessions: preempting local labor laws, such as mandatory paid sick leave. The Texas chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business quickly applauded Abbott for “putting regulatory consistency” on the call.
Lawmakers had long been preparing for a special session including the disbursement of the COVID-19 funds, though it was unclear if Abbott would add the item to the special session or another one later in the year when redistricting is expected to be addressed.
On Monday, an Austin judge signs order to block arrests of Democrats who refuse to return to Texas Capitol for special session:
A state district judge in Travis County issued an order blocking the arrest of House Democrats who have broken quorum by leaving the state, paving the way for those who remain outside of Texas to return home without threat of apprehension.
State District Judge Brad Urrutia, a Democrat, granted the temporary restraining order late Sunday night restricting Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan from “detaining, confining or otherwise restricting” the free movement of House Democrats within the state or issuing any warrants ordering their confinement.
The order expires in 14 days unless extended by Urrutia. The court will hear arguments on a temporary injunction on Aug. 20, and Abbott and Phelan must show why a temporary injunction should not be filed against them.
[A]bbott had called for the arrest of the Democratic lawmakers as soon as they returned to the state, and Phelan signed a civil warrant for Rep. Philip Cortez after he returned to Austin from Washington in July only to leave the state capitol again a few days later.
The petition for the restraining order appears to be preemptive in nature, as the House has not yet voted to renew a call of the House in the second special session, which began Saturday.
“[T]he Speaker thinks he can wave his hand and have his political opponents rounded up and arrested. We’re watching a major political party backslide in real time from fair representation, the rule of law, and democracy itself,” said Dallas State Rep. Jasmine Crockett, one of the plaintiffs in the case.
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Enrique Marquez, a Phelan spokesman, said Monday morning the speaker’s office had not yet been notified of the suit or restraining order.
[T]he lawsuit was filed on behalf of 19 House Democrats by attorneys Samuel E. Bassett, Jeremy Monthy and Megan Rue.
“No matter what the Governor or Speaker have said, it is a fundamental principle in this country that no one has the power to arrest their political opponents. That is why this action had to be filed,” Bassett said in a statement.
The plaintiffs are Reps. Gina Hinojosa, Alma Allen, Michelle Beckley, Jasmine Crockett, Joe Deshotel, Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, Vikki Goodwin, Celia Israel, Ray Lopez, Armando “Mando” Martinez, Trey Martinez Fischer, Ina Minjarez, Christina Morales, Mary Ann Perez, Ana-Maria Ramos, Richard Peña Raymond, Ron Reynolds, Eddie Rodriguez and Ramon Romero, Jr. All of the plaintiffs broke quorum and left the state in July.
In his order, Urrutia said Abbott and Phelan erroneously interpreted Texas law and legislative rules to allow the apprehension of members of the House in response to a call for quorum. He barred the defendants from detaining or restraining the Democrats’ movement in any way and from issuing warrants or other documents ordering their apprehension. Urrutia also barred the defendants from ordering law enforcement to arrest the lawmakers.
The Democrats successfully held off passage of the controversial elections bill during the first specially called legislative session, which ended on Friday, but Abbott called for a second 30-day session that started on Saturday to push the bill, and other pieces of legislation, through. A few House Democrats signaled they’d return to the state but at least 26 holdouts said they would stay in Washington. All of the plaintiffs in the case in state court indicated they would stay in the nation’s capital.
The House did not reach a quorum on Saturday and will gavel in for session Monday at 4 p.m.
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The crypto-fascist authoritarian Texas GQP wasted little time: “Texas Republicans order the arrest of Democrats who fled to block G.O.P. voting bill.”, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/us/politics/texas-house-democrats-arrest.html
The Texas House of Representatives on Tuesday authorized state law enforcement to round up and potentially arrest absentee Democrats who fled the Republican-led chamber to block action on polarizing election legislation.
The 80-12 vote empowered the House sergeant-at-arms to dispatch law enforcement officers to compel the attendance of missing members “under warrant of arrest, if necessary.”
After the vote, Dade Phelan, the speaker of the Texas House, signed 52 civil arrest warrants which will be delivered to the House Sergeant-at-Arms Wednesday morning for service.
The move by the Texas House, sitting in Austin, came hours after the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court, acting on a petition by Gov. Greg Abbott and Mr. Phelan, overturned an earlier ruling.
UPDATE: This is what GQP court packing is all about – “Texas Supreme Court allows for arrest of Democrats who don’t show up to Legislature”, https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/10/texas-greg-abbott-democrats-special-session/
The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday voided a state district judge’s temporary restraining order barring the arrest of state legislators, ruling that House Democrats who refuse to show up for the Legislature could soon be detained by law enforcement and brought back to the state Capitol.
The all-Republican high court’s order came at the request of Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan, also both Republicans, who petitioned the court on Monday to overturn a recent ruling by a Travis County district judge that blocked them from ordering the arrest of quorum-busting Democrats, who were in Washington, D.C., for about a month. The House Democrats in the suit have until Thursday at 4 p.m. to respond to the court. Democrats who are arrested would not face criminal charges and could not be jailed or fined. Law enforcement officers carrying out arrest orders by state officials could only try to bring them to the House chambers.
[In] a joint statement, Democratic State Reps. Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, Gina Hinojosa of Austin and Jasmine Crockett of Dallas, said they would continue to fight for a temporary injunction at the district court level.
“It is no surprise that Republican Governor Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan want to arrest their political opponents. Thankfully, this is still the United States of America. We will defend the freedom to vote, and we look forward to our temporary injunction hearing on August 20th.”
The Democrats fled the state in July to block the passage of a Republican elections bill they say would restrict voting rights in the state. They successfully thwarted the bill during a 30-day specially called session that ended Friday, but Abbott immediately called for a second special session that began Saturday. Although some House Democrats have returned, many have stayed away from the Capitol to prevent the chamber from having enough members present to conduct business.
“There’s no way in hell I’m going to that House floor while I’ve got the protection of a judge’s order,” State Rep. Celia Israel, D-Austin, told The Texas Tribune on Tuesday morning before the Supreme Court’s action. Israel said she is back in Austin.
Without the Supreme Court’s intervention, Abbott and Phelan would have had no assurance whether the temporary restraining order would be lifted, and such orders are not appealable. The first scheduled hearing in district court is set for Aug. 20, when Judge Brad Urrutia would decide whether to grant Democrats a temporary injunction. Waiting until then “virtually guarantees that no significant legislation will be passed during this session,” Judd E. Stone II, the state’s solicitor general, argued in his emergency motion to the Supreme Court.
The state also argued that the Supreme Court’s action is warranted because the House speaker is immune from suits for legislative acts.
“Compelling the attendance of absent members by the House is a quintessential legislative act,” the state’s motion read, adding that Urrutia’s “hasty” order “ignores this fundamental principle.”
The state also argued that the House Democrats’ claims are “quintessential political questions” that lie beyond a court’s power to decide. The House’s rules allow for present members to compel the attendance of missing lawmakers, and at least 41 other states have similar provisions in their constitutions, the motion read.
In a response, lawyers for the House Democrats who received the temporary restraining order said the state sought an order that will free it to “to forcibly arrest political opponents who have committed no crime.”
Unlike other states, whose rules only require the presence of a majority of members to reach quorum, Texas requires a two-thirds supermajority “because the framers of the Texas Constitution prioritized high levels of participation and consensus-building in legislative decision making, even if it increased the costs of the process and the possibility that the process could deadlock,” the Democrats’ lawyers argued.
“In other words, the architects of the Texas government fully expected, and even encouraged, the power of a cohesive minority of members to ‘bust the quorum’ as a means of participation in the decision-making process,” their response read, adding that the Democrats were “acting like true Texans.”
They also argued that the state did not prove it would be harmed if the Supreme Court did not grant a stay, while the House Democrats — some of whom had already returned to the state on the understanding that Urrutia’s order protected them from arrest — would suffer harm.
Once one of those lawmakers was arrested “without a premeditating crime or due process, the Court cannot un-ring that bell,” the Democrats’ lawyers argued.