{"id":295850,"date":"2026-05-16T10:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/295850\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T10:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:01:20","slug":"texas-high-court-rejects-removal-of-democratic-lawmakers-who-left-state-over-redistricting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/295850\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas high court rejects removal of Democratic lawmakers who left state over redistricting"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 The Texas Supreme Court on Friday refused to declare that Democratic lawmakers who briefly fled the state<\/a> in 2025 to block a vote on new congressional maps pushed by President Donald Trump had vacated their office.<\/p>\n

The all-Republican court dealt a blow to Gov. Greg Abbott and state Republicans in their efforts to severely punish the more than 50 Democrats who bolted for New York, Illinois<\/a> and Massachusetts in a bid to stop<\/a> a vote on the maps during a special session. <\/p>\n

The Texas redistricting effort kick-started cascading efforts by both parties across the country to redraw voting maps ahead of this year\u2019s midterm elections: Republicans, pushed by Trump, seek to hold their slim majority in Congress as Democrats try to counter them.<\/p>\n

Those efforts have gained new intensity after the U.S. Supreme Court further weakened the Voting Rights Act<\/a> by no longer allowing race to be considered in how congressional and other districts are drawn.<\/p>\n

In Texas, Abbott had argued in a lawsuit<\/a> filed directly to the state\u2019s highest civil court that state Rep. Gene Wu<\/a>, the leader of the House Democratic caucus, and others had effectively abandoned their office. <\/p>\n

If successful, they hoped to wield a new hammer to threaten lawmakers considering any future quorum breaks.<\/p>\n

Wu had argued that he was not abandoning his office, but was exercising a right to dissent. <\/p>\n

In denying Abbott\u2019s request, the court opinion written by Justice James Blacklock noted that the Republican-majority Legislature had adequately resolved the problem itself through measures such as fines against the missing lawmakers, and it noted they eventually returned on their own within a few weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, a quorum was restored in two weeks\u2019 time, without judicial intervention, by the interplay of political and practical forces,\u201d Blacklock wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourts have uniformly recognized that it is not their role to resolve disputes between the other two branches that those branches can resolve for themselves,\u201d the opinion said.<\/p>\n

If the issue rises again and the Legislature cannot effectively compel lawmakers to return, the court may someday consider whether the courts should step in, the opinion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Greg Abbott threatened to arrest and expel us for denying him a quorum, we told him he should \u2018come and take it.\u2019 He tried!\u201d Wu said in a statement Friday. \u201cAbbott was wrong, weak, and after all his bluster, he couldn\u2019t come and take a damn thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wu and the other lawmakers eventually returned to Texas<\/a>, and the new map was passed and signed into law by Abbott<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wu had argued that because he had returned to the Capitol and the map was eventually signed into law, there was no longer any reason for the court to weigh in. <\/p>\n

If lawmakers leave again, the governor will bring the same issue back to the court, Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo elected official has the right to abandon their duties, flee the state and shut down the people\u2019s business,\u201d Mahaleris said. \u201cGovernor Abbott\u2019s legal action is what brought derelict Democrats back to Texas to do their jobs and pass the Big Beautiful Map.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state constitution requires that at least 100 of the 150 House members be present to conduct business, and the quorum break effectively shut down a special legislative session Abbott had called to address redistricting and other issues.<\/p>\n

And Texas has a history of walkouts.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the court ruled that the Texas Constitution enables the possibility of a quorum break but also allows for consequences to bring members back.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Democratic walkout was the third since 2003, when lawmakers bolted to stop a vote on a redistricting bill. They did it again in 2021<\/a> over an elections bill. In both cases, they were temporary victories as Democrats eventually returned and the Republican majority in the Legislature ultimately passed both measures into law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 The Texas Supreme Court on Friday refused to declare that Democratic lawmakers who briefly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[81792,17101,815,145,38209,490,392,107841,107842,107843,107840,287,2830,27,29,28,5577,1760,5576,1499,9931,2279],"class_list":["post-295850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-andrew-mahaleris","tag-ap-top-news","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-gene-wu","tag-general-news","tag-greg-abbott","tag-illinois-state-government","tag-james-blacklock","tag-massachusetts-state-government","tag-new-york-state-government","tag-politics","tag-redistricting","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-state-government","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-news","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}