Texas Democrats Flee the State to Block Redistricting; Greg Abbott Says That the State Constitution Allows Him to Declare Their Seats Forfeited

I don't know why they didn't fix this the past twenty times the Democrats did this. They do this every time there's a major vote, and we just keep letting them.

More than 50 Texas Democrats fled to Chicago on Sunday to block a redistricting plan that could give Republicans several new congressional seats. The move threatens to stall legislative business by denying the House a quorum.

Key Details:

Texas Democrats are attempting to deny the GOP a quorum in the 150-member state House, where at least 100 members must be present to move legislation forward. Democrat leaders say at least 51 members left the state.
The redistricting plan, introduced last week, would shift district lines to favor Republicans -- potentially flipping several urban Democrat seats.
Texas Republicans, led by House Speaker Dustin Burrows, are demanding Democrats return, with Attorney General Ken Paxton warning they could be arrested.

Steve Turley said that if the redistricting plan goes through, Jasmine Ratchet will probably lose her seat.

Greg Abbot says he will declare the "fleebaggers" to have resigned from their seats.

Can he actually take their seats away from them? I don't know. Even if he does, there will then be years of litigation to determine if the redistricting map was passed legally.

Governor Greg Abbott is threatening to oust the Texas Democrats who fled to Chicago to block a GOP-led redistricting bill, accusing them of abandoning their posts and violating the Texas Constitution by intentionally denying the House a quorum.

In a letter released Sunday, Abbott made clear that lawmakers who continue to skip work could be removed from office altogether. "These absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose," he wrote, noting that 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."

To justify potential removals, Abbott pointed to Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382. That 2021 opinion concluded that legislators who intentionally break quorum can be found to have "vacated office." Abbott emphasized that under this legal framework, "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."

He added, "That empowers me to swiftly fill vacancies under Article III, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution."

Speaking of redistricting: The Supreme Court says it wants to hear arguments on the question of the constitutionality of racially-gerrymandered congressional seats.

Since the 80s, states have prioritized race as a factor in drawing congressional districts. Bizarre snake-like gerrymanders slither throughout states to pick up black neighborhoods here and there to guarantee a "majority minority" district where blacks are guaranteed to elect a black Democrat.

Is this even constitutional? The Supreme Court seems to think it's not, because they have asked for arguments on the issue even though it was basically ignored in the lower courts.

The Supreme Court said Friday that it will weigh the constitutionality of a common form of redistricting used to protect the voting power of Black and Hispanic voters: the drawing of congressional districts where racial minorities make up at least half the population.

Experts in election law said the move signals that the court may be poised to further narrow the Voting Rights Act.

In a terse order issued Friday evening, the justices called for briefing on whether the "intentional creation of a second majority-minority congressional district violates the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution."

The order came in a case challenging Louisiana's congressional map, which contains two majority-Black districts out of the state's six House seats.

The court heard arguments in the case in March and had been expected to rule by June. But on June 27, the justices punted the case into their next term and ordered that it be reargued.

Now, Friday's order loosely sketches the terrain on which the justices want further arguments: the claim that the longstanding practice of drawing majority-minority districts under the Voting Rights Acts may be unconstitutional because of its focus on race in drawing district lines. The voters challenging Louisiana's map had already advanced that constitutional claim in the case, but the justices' call for further briefing on the issue suggests they want to consider the claim more fully.

Below, Steve Turley argues that ending the racial gerrymanders will effectively wipe out all Democrat congressional representation in the south and guarantee the Republican Party a minimum of 230 seats in Congress. (218 seats are needed for the majority.)

posted by Ace at 12:32 PM

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