The Texas Supreme Court rejected on a Friday a request from Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) to oust Democratic lawmakers who fled the state legislature last summer to protest their Republican counterparts’ mid-decade redistricting efforts, which were ultimately successful.Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that by breaking quorum, Democrats “abandoned or forfeited their offices.” A quorum requires at least two-thirds of the 150-member Texas House to be present for conducting business. The Democrat-led quorum break shut down the redistricting-related special legislative session Abbott called last year.More than 50 Texas Democrats fled to New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts at the time, but they eventually returned after Texas Republicans threatened to impose fines.
That threat ultimately came to fruition last month when a Republican-led Texas House committee slapped each Democrat who broke quorum with an $8,000 fine. The fines amounted to nearly $422,000.
Chief Justice James Blacklock determined that the issue was resolved on its own and, as a result, found that the case doesn’t require the Texas Supreme Court to intervene.
“In the end, a quorum was restored in two weeks’ time, without judicial intervention, by the interplay of political and practical forces,” Blacklock wrote in a five-page opinion.
