The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected Gov. Greg Abbott’s bid to expel the state’s top House Democrat from office, unanimously ruling that his role in breaking quorum to stall redistricting legislation did not grant Abbott the power to remove him. 

Lawyers for Abbott had argued that state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, “abdicated the remainder of his current term” when he left the state to stall the GOP’s plan to redraw congressional maps in their party’s favor ahead of the 2026 midterms. Abbott prodded the court just this week to ask for a ruling in the months-old case, which constituted an unprecedented move by a sitting Texas governor to exert power over the legislative branch.

In the majority opinion for the all-Republican court, Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock wrote that the court didn’t need to intervene because Wu and other lawmakers returned to office. He cited rules and legislation already in place that allow Republicans to pressure Democrats to return, including by imposing fines and penalties.

“The Texas Constitution’s internal political remedies, none of which involve the judicial branch, were sufficient to the task of restoring the House’s ability to do business,” Blacklock wrote. 

The ruling does not mean the judicial branch could not have a role to play in the future, Blacklock wrote. “Should those remedies unexpectedly prove inadequate in a future case, we might have occasion to consider whether any judicial remedy could ever be available in circumstances such as these.”

In April, the Texas House Republican majority imposed fines of roughly $8,000 on each of the more than 50 Democrats who fled the state to fight redistricting. Wu announced last week that he had paid the $8,000 fine, which amounted to $500 for every day Democrats were absent and a reimbursement for the effort to round them up. 

“When Greg Abbott threatened to arrest and expel us for denying him a quorum, we told him he should ‘come and take it,'” Wu said in a statement on Friday. “Abbott was wrong, weak, and after all his bluster he couldn’t come and take a damn thing.”

The new maps, ordered up by President Donald Trump to create five more winnable U.S. House seats for Republicans, passed in August after Democrats returned. 

Abbott did not immediately return requests for comment. 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Staff writer John C. Moritz contributed reporting.