AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott released a letter Sunday night in which he said that he would seek to remove “derelict Democrats” from their elected offices in the Texas House of Representatives if they fail to return by Monday afternoon.
“Real Texans do not run from a fight. But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did,” Abbott’s letter reads. “Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.”
In the letter, Abbott cites an opinion written by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Such opinions do not carry the weight of law, but do signal a willingness of the AG’s office to prosecute.
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“The Attorney General concluded that … ‘through a quo warranto action, a district court may determine that a legislator has forfeited his or her office due to abandonment and can remove the legislator from office, thereby creating a vacancy,'” Abbott wrote. “That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution.”
Removing quorum breakers has not been done in similar situations.
That section of the state’s constitution requires the governor to call for an election within 20 days of a vacancy.
“Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business,” Abbott wrote. “The absconded Democrat House members were elected to meet and vote on legislation, not to prevent votes that may not go their way.”
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Abbott also suggested that he would seek felony charges against Democrats, claiming that some “may have violated bribery laws.”
“I will use my full extradition authority to demand the return to Texas of any potential out-of-state felons,” he added.
Either action by Abbott would likely trigger lengthy court battles.
