AUSTIN, Texas Aug. 7 -- Eleven Senate Democrats in out-of-state exile challenged Gov. Rick Perry's authority to call the current special legislative session, and the governor later Thursday made his own court filing asking the Texas Supreme Court to order the lawmakers home.
The Democrats, who are holed up in a New Mexico hotel, filed suit in Travis County District Court, also asking that state officials or their deputies be prohibited from arresting them should they return to Texas.
No details were immediately available about the Supreme Court filing by Attorney General Greg Abbott on the governor's behalf.
Sen. Royce West said the Democrats are challenging Perry's authority to call the special session on redistricting because the Texas Constitution allows governors to call special sessions only in extraordinary situations.
"It's our contention that if you have a legal map in place that's been approved in federal court and defended by the attorney general, then extraordinary occasions do not exist," West said.
Lawmakers during the 2001 legislative session failed to draw congressional district boundaries so federal judges drew up the plan. Two Republican-led attempts this year to get a new map have failed.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called the Democratic lawsuit "frivolous and politically motivated."
Shortly before Perry called his second special session last week on redistricting, the 11 Senate Democrats fled the Capitol to bust a quorum.
Their absence has brought the Senate to a standstill because without them the chamber does not have enough members to take up business. The Senate has 31 members and two-thirds must be present to conduct business.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, among the Democrats staying in Albuquerque, said part of the suit that seeks to allow the exiled Democrats back into the state without fear of arrest simply seeks clarification.
A state judge has ruled that Department of Public Safety did not have the authority to arrest members of the state House to enforce a quorum in that chamber. The ruling stemmed from the May walkout by more than 50 House Democrats to thwart redistricting efforts.
The DPS troopers had been dispatched to try to find the House Democrats. They could not bring them back from Oklahoma because they did not have authority to do so since the Democrats were in another state.
Dewhurst has said that if the Texas Democrats return to the state he will ask that they be compelled to return to the Senate chamber.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.