Does Governor Abbott actually have the power to vacate absent Dems’ House seats?

As Texas Democrats flee the state to obstruct redistricting efforts that would benefit Republicans, people are wondering what the options are.

Upset leftists who can’t stand that people like the GOP more are preventing the Texas House from receiving the necessary 100 members to convene. This effort is serving to pause attempts to redraw its U.S. congressional map, which will likely flip a handful of seats from blue to red, giving Republicans an advantage.

Many are upset by this quorum break and are looking to Governor Greg Abbott for answers. Among the questions being asked is whether he has the authority to vacate the seats being held by the members who fled the state. This comes after he threatened to do so, while also weighing the possibility of bribery charges for those who solicited funding for their actions.

More from The Hill:

On Sunday night, Abbott cited a non-binding 2021 opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, saying “For any member who fails to (appear), I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House.”

Despite the citation, the opinion does not give claim the Governor has any power to remove members of the Texas legislature from office. Instead, it purports that a district court could declare a seat abandoned, and therefore treat the seat as if it had been resigned. However, in the opinion the Texas Supreme Court is cited saying abandonment is a form of resignation that requires lawmakers to actually abandon their position.

“(Resignation) is a formal relinquishment; (abandonment is) a relinquishment through nonuser,” the court wrote in Honey v. Graham (1873). “Abandonment implies nonuser, but nonuser does not, of itself, constitute abandonment. The failure to perform the duties pertaining to the office must be with actual or imputed intention on the part of the officer to abandon and relinquish the office.”

The missing Democrats dismissed Abbott’s threats.

“Come and take it,” said Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu.

“Respectfully, he’s making up some s**t. He’s just trying to get sound bites and he has no legal mechanisms,” said State Rep. Jolanda Jones, D-Houston.

Meanwhile, the governor has officially authorized the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to civilly arrest the missing members. However, the department’s authority only exists within the borders of Texas, meaning those who have fled to states like California and New York are currently safe from that threat.

“Once they’re out of state, it’s almost impossible to touch them. The Governor certainly can’t send his sheriffs or marshals — or certainly shouldn’t send non-government workers like private bail bondsmen to cross state lines to grab people and bring them back to Texas. I think that would be lawless violence,” said Maynooth Law Professor Seth Barrett Tillman.

“I hadn’t thought about (the federal Government getting involved),” he added. “They’re not breaking any federal law that I know of and if there’s not I don’t know what federal power, what marshal, what other agent of the government could reach into a state out of Texas, grab a member of the legislature and shift him over the state line without basically that action being called kidnapping.”

That said, the use of federal firepower to bring the errant lawmakers home hasn’t been entirely ruled out.

Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, said they are “looking for whatever we need to do to maintain this important work.”

“We will continue to work with everybody to make sure there is nothing off the table.”

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.

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