The Texas Supreme Court on May 15 rejected a request to remove more than 50 Democratic lawmakers from their seats after they fled the state to block a redistricting vote in 2025.
The court opinion suggested judicial intervention was not needed because it was already addressed when the Republican-majority Legislature issued fines against the missing lawmakers.
The high court noted that the Democrats also returned on their own within a few weeks.
“Courts have uniformly recognized that it is not their role to resolve disputes between the other two branches that those branches can resolve for themselves,” Justice James Blacklock wrote in a court opinion.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott argued in the lawsuit that the state Democrats abandoned their office when they exited the state during the special session.
State Republicans pushed to have those who briefly traveled out of state arrested, fined, and brought back to the state Capitol in Austin so they could vote.
Rep. Gene Wu, who led the House Democratic caucus, defended the move and suggested the lawmakers were just exercising their right to dissent.
“Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court said: no. The Constitution does not let a Governor erase voters’ choices when their choices are inconvenient to him,” Wu wrote in a statement on Friday.
Wu added that Democrats “refused to be bullied” into Republican efforts to “pass a rigged map for Donald Trump” ahead of the midterms.
“When Greg Abbott threatened to arrest and expel us for denying him a quorum, we told him he should ‘come and take it.’ He tried!” Wu added.
When Democrats returned to the Capitol weeks later, the redistricting map, which favored Republicans, was already signed into law by Abbott.
The governor’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, told The Epoch Times in a statement on Friday that Abbott would take further action if Democrats try to exit the state again to block a vote.
“No elected official has the right to abandon their duties, flee the state, and shut down the people’s business,” Mahaleris wrote in a statement.
“Governor Abbott’s legal action is what brought derelict Democrats back to Texas to do their jobs and pass the Big Beautiful Map. Now, SCOTX has warned them against pulling a similar stunt in the future. If Democrats abandon their offices again, the Governor will bring them right back to the Texas Supreme Court.”
This prompted Tennessee lawmakers to successfully eliminate a Democratic district in Memphis and redraw a map which has all nine U.S. House seats lean Republican.