The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People urged the Justice Department to commence an investigation after Texas state GOP leaders issued arrest warrants for the more than 50 House Democrats who fled the state last month to block a pair of Republican-backed voting bills.
On Tuesday, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan OK’d 52 civil warrants, which allow Lone Star State authorities to place members in custody and return them to the Capitol in Austin. The move, a step up from a previous decision authorizing law enforcement to locate the elusive legislators “under warrant of arrest if necessary,” amounts to “threaten[ing]” political minorities, the civil rights group alleged.
“I write on behalf of the NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the United States, on behalf of those persons in Texas fearful of a government that has determined it need not abide by the U.S. Constitution, and may arrest and imprison citizens for their political beliefs,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote in a letter to Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
TEXAS HOUSE SPEAKER ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS FOR ABSENT DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS
“There is no allegation that any of the Democrats to be arrested has committed any crime … In short, the State of Texas government has decided that the First, Fourth, and Thirteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are ineffective in Texas.”
Earlier in the week, State District Judge Brad Urrutia, a Democrat, issued a restraining order that forbade Abbott and other lawmakers from corralling the absent Democrats. The state’s Supreme Court then blocked the restraining order Tuesday, paving the way for Phelan’s move.
The saga began in mid-July after Abbott commissioned a special session to deliberate on Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 3, a pair of bills that would ban drive-thru voting, implement more comprehensive voter identification requirements for mail-in ballots, and prohibit officials from sending voting applications to those who did not request them.
The first special session has since ended, and Abbott commissioned a second in recent days, renewing the bitter fight.
On July 12, nearly 60 Democrats boarded private jets to rendezvous with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., in a bid to deny the Legislature the necessary two-thirds quorum and paralyze the House. S.B. 1 was passed by the Senate amid the lawmakers’ departure, but H.B. 3 has been stalled.
The NAACP lashed out against Texas’s potential practice of apprehending “political minorities,” saying the state was showing signs of authoritarianism.
“At this time when political minorities are being threatened with being rounded up and imprisoned in Texas, the eyes of the country and the world are upon the DOJ and how it deals with Texas’s actions,” Johnson said.
“Without DOJ’s protection, it is more than likely that those intent upon subverting democracy in Texas will be successful in their efforts,” he added.
The Democrat excursion to Washington, D.C., is not without controversy, as at least six of the lawmakers tested positive for COVID-19 since they fled the state. The Democrats were photographed not wearing masks as they flew on chartered flights to the nation’s capital in July.
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Last month, State Rep. Armando Walle projected the cost of the trip would top $1.5 million by the time it concludes. Questions have subsequently been raised regarding whether or not taxpayers will be footing the bill.
Democrats have insisted that no taxpayer funds are being used in the excursion, but their Republican counterparts have posited that upward of $1 million will be paid by residents due to the prolonging of a special session. Phelan has since requested the Democrats return their $221 per day wages, which are granted during special sessions, if they’re outside of the Lone Star State.
