Texas House Issues Arrest Warrants for Democrats Who Fled State in Protest
To force through a restrictive election measure, Texas House empowers their sergeant-at-arms to bring democrats back in handcuffs.
Landwebs
In an 80-12 vote, the Texas House of Representatives empowered House sergeant-at-arms Michael Black to issue 52 civil arrest warrants to compel the presence of the absentee Democrats who bolted the chamber during the final hours of the legislative session in May in order to deny the House a quorum and thus block the passage of a restrictive election measure, reports the New York Times. The involvement of the sergeant-at-arms is the latest turn in a steadily escalating confrontation between, on one side, Gov. Greg Abbott and the 83 Republicans who control the House and, on the other, most of the 67 Democrats in the chamber, who have forced the governor to call not one, but two, special sessions by refusing to show up to produce the quorum needed to do business.
Dade Phelan, the speaker of the Texas House, signed the 52 civil arrest warrants to start the roundup. Members of the Texas Department of Public Safety could also be dispatched throughout the state to go to the homes and businesses of the absentee members and escort them back to Austin. While a ruling from a district court judge in Austin determined that the two officials did not have the authority to order the arrests, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court, acting on a petition by Abbott and Phelan, overturned it.
