Texas asks Illinois court to enforce arrest warrants for Democratic lawmakers

While Texas House Democrats hunker down in Illinois, breaking quorum to prevent their Republican colleagues from voting on redistricting during a special session, the Lone Star State is pursuing legal action, hoping to get the Prairie State to assist in apprehending the state legislators.

A filing with the Eighth Judicial Circuit Court, Adams County, Illinois, names the Texas House of Representatives as the petitioner and various state House members as respondents.

After the Democrats absconded, the state House sought to compel their attendance, voting in favor of a lawmaker’s motion for the sergeant-at-arms to send for lawmakers with unexcused absences “for the purpose of securing and maintaining their attendance, under warrant of arrest if necessary.”

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“Accordingly, Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows issued civil warrants for the members who had deliberately and without excuse broken quorum,” the court filing states. 

The state wants Illinois to help.

“The Texas House of Representatives seeks an order recognizing the Quorum Warrants as a public Act of the State of Texas that is entitled to full faith and credit in Illinois, and requests that this Court issue civil warrants directing the appropriate Illinois law enforcement officials to effectuate the civil arrest of Respondents and coordinate with the Sergeant of Arms of the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Department of Public Safety to return them to Texas,” the filing declares.

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — who is running for U.S. Senate, hoping to defeat incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn — referred to the Democrats who fled the state as “rogue legislators.”

“We are pursuing every legal remedy at our disposal to hold these rogue legislators accountable. Texas deserves representatives who do their jobs instead of running away at the behest of their billionaire handlers. If there’s one thing Texans can’t stand more than losers, it’s cowards,” Paxton noted, according to a press release.

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“From day one, I have said that all options are on the table when it comes to making sure my colleagues who have fled the House return to fulfill their constitutional obligations,” Burrows said, according to the attorney general office’s press release. “The members who fled have been given ample time and opportunity to return on their own accord, and because they have continued to refuse their responsibilities to their constituents and return to Texas, the State has no choice but to pursue additional legal remedies to compel their return from other states.”