Texas AG sues to expel absent Dems, block fundraising efforts

AUSTIN, Texas (CN) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton scored a quick win on Friday in one of his lawsuits filed the same day against state Democrats breaking quorum to block the Texas House of Representatives from taking a vote on a controversial redistricting proposal backed by President Donald Trump.

Paxton claims in one suit that the members leaving the state constitute abandonment of office, and in a second suit, that former El Paso Congressman and failed gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke and his voter registration group conspired to aid and abet Democrats in their effort to deny the House a quorum.

Issuing a temporary restraining order just hours after the suit was filed, Tarrant County Judge Megan Fay, an elected Republican, ordered O’Rourke and Powered by People to stop using funds to pay for Democrats’ travel expenses and conduct fundraising to pay for such expenses in the future.

In his first lawsuit, filed with the Texas Supreme Court, Paxton is seeking the expulsion from office of 13 Democrat members of the Texas House of Representatives.

Under a writ of quo warranto, a court may decide that an office is being unduly held by someone and provide a means for their removal. Paxton makes the case that by fleeing the state, the Democrats forfeited their offices.

“The rogue Democrat legislators who fled the state have abandoned their duties, leaving their seats vacant,” Paxton said in a statement announcing the filing. “These cowards deliberately sabotaged the constitutional process and violated the oath they swore to uphold.”

Paxton’s petition comes days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott filed a similar suit with the state Supreme Court on Tuesday. The biggest difference between the two is that the governor asked the court to determine whether a single lawmaker, Houston Representative Gene Wu — and leader of the House Democratic Caucus — abandoned his seat.

As of Friday, the high court has yet to release a ruling on Abbott’s filing.

Following the announcement of Paxton’s suit, attorney Chad Dunn, who is representing Wu, called the petitions unconstitutional.

“The power to discipline a legislator for breaking quorum belongs to the House of Representatives, not the governor’s office or the judiciary,” Dunn, of Houston-based firm Brazil and Dunn, said in a press release. “This is a foundational principle of our democracy, and the governor’s coordinated legal attack is a dangerous assault on the separation of powers."

The Texas Supreme Court is comprised entirely of elected Republicans — several of them appointed by Abbott or worked for him as general counsel, including the court’s Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock.

When Democrats broke quorum in 2021 during a special session focusing on voting legislation, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers can be arrested and returned to the Capitol in order to force the chamber to have the 100 members required to conduct business.

In the wake of Democrats’ latest effort to block a redrawing of the state’s congressional districts, Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows has signed civil arrest warrants for all of the over 50 members who have fled to Illinois, New York and California. The lawmakers are also being fined $500 per day they are absent. It has also been reported that the FBI is getting involved in the effort; however, what role federal agents will play in restoring a quorum remains unclear.

In Paxton’s second lawsuit — filed in Tarrant County, home to Dallas — against O’Rourke and Powered by People, the state has also requested civil penalties of more than $1 million to be assessed, or $10,000 for each violation of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

It is no secret that the group hasbeen funding the House Democrats’ exodus. However, Paxton calls the legality of the group’s involvement into question, lobbing accusations of bribery and misleading donors into giving.

“By offering to fundraise and help pay for legislative fines and hotel and travel expenses if Democratic legislators broke quorum, defendants offered, conferred and agreed to confer a benefit on those Democratic legislators in exchange for violation of their Constitutional duties,” Paxton claims in his lawsuit.

While the reasons behind the Democrats’ quorum break are inherently political, Paxton claims O’Rourke and Powered by People are pushing people to donate so the funds can be used for personal gains, such as paying for flights, hotel rooms and meals. Things that “are disconnected from, and have no legitimate purpose relating to, [lawmakers’] legislative positions,” he claims in the suit.

Furthermore, Paxton speculates that legislators who accept funds may be on the hook for bribery, because they are barred from accepting anything of benefit valued at or greater than $50 under state law.

Paxton himself has been accused of bribery in the past. It was just one of several charges against him during his 2023 impeachment trial. The Texas Senate acquitted him of all charges in that instance.

Due to Democrats fleeing the state, the Texas House has been paralyzed, unable to take up any legislation on the special session agenda set by Abbott. With every passing day, chances grow more likely that the legislature will be unable to enact its redistricting plan, but the governor can, and has vowed to, call another special session to ensure his requests have been met.

Republicans in the House and Senate have agreed on a new congressional map that redraws 37 of the state’s 38 districts. Under the proposal, Republicans could stand to gain an additional five seats, boosting their chances of holding onto their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for an additional two years, meeting a goal the president has set for them.

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