Voter and civil rights organizations are seeking to block efforts by Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to expel 13 Democratic state representatives from office for their role in this summer's quorum break.
The groups filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Wednesday with the Supreme Court of Texas, the state's highest civil court, which will decide the case.
Abbott and Paxton filed their petitions to the state supreme court at the height of the Democratic quorum break, when more than 50 Democratic state representatives left the state to temporarily prevent the Texas House from voting on a Republican-led congressional redistricting plan designed to give the party as many as five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 midterm elections. The Democrats returned in August, and the Legislature ultimately passed a map even more heavily tilted toward the GOP than first proposed.
Abbott's petition accused House Minority Leader Gene Wu (D-Houston) of being the ringleader of the quorum break. The governor asked the high court to declare Wu had abandoned his office and that Wu's seat was now vacant.
"If a small fraction of recalcitrant lawmakers choose to run out the clock today, they can do so for any, and every, Regular or Special Session, potentially bankrupting the State in an attempt to get their way, "Abbott said in his petition. "So here to, the Court's decision will determine if only one-third of the Legislature can dictate the outcome for 100% of Texans."
At the time, Paxton argued that he, not the governor, had the authority to petition the high court on such an issue. He cast his net wider, seeking the expulsion of 13 Democratic lawmakers who had participated in the quorum break, including three from the Houston area – state Reps. Wu, Ron Reynolds (D-Missouri City), Suleman Lalani (D-Sugar Land) and Christina Morales (D-Houston).
"Members of a legislative minority are intentionally interfering with ‘the prerogative of the majority to conduct business,'" Paxton wrote in his petition, citing a high court ruling in a case involving the 2021 Democratic quorum break. "Each Respondent has released a public statement admitting that the purpose and intent of the absences is to disrupt the work of the House."
In both cases, Abbott and Paxton argued that the Texas Constitution requires the attendance of all lawmakers during a regular or special session and that the state constitution allows the majority to compel the attendance of those seeking to break quorum.
A coalition of five voting and civil rights organizations, however, is contesting that position. They include the League of Women Voters of Texas, Asian Texans for Justice, OCA-Greater Houston, UnidosUS and the Texas State Conference of the NAACP.
"The actions that Governor Abbott has taken, the actions that Ken Paxton has taken, they have no basis in the Texas Constitution," said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of the legal services nonprofit Democracy Forward, which filed the friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the coalition. "The Texas Constitution has long recognized the Separation of Powers and has long recognized the ability of individual lawmakers to deny a quorum, to leave the state when representing their communities requires that."
It remains unclear when the Supreme Court of Texas will rule on the petitions.
"The main thing that we want people in Texas to understand is that this is a real threat to the ability of all people to vote and then to be represented by those who were elected," Perryman said. "That is a threat to democracy in the state of Texas."
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