Texas Supreme Court rejects Abbott’s request to remove Rep. Gene Wu over redistricting protest
The all-Republican court declined to referee a fight the Legislature had already settled itself — though one justice warned future quorum-breakers to “be ready to pay us a visit.”
The all-Republican Texas Supreme Court rejected Gov. Abbott’s effort to remove Rep. Gene Wu and other Democrats, holding that it is not the courts’ role to resolve a dispute the other two branches settled themselves when the Legislature restored its quorum last summer.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock — a former Abbott aide — leaned on the courts’ “reluctance … to involve themselves in contests of factional political power.” The justices left the door open to future cases: in a concurrence, Justice James Sullivan warned that “the next set of quorum-breakers had better be ready to pay us a visit.”
No Texas lawmaker has ever been removed from office solely for breaking quorum. Wu declared victory.
Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court said: No. The Constitution does not let a governor erase voters’ choices when their choices are inconvenient to him. — Rep. Gene Wu