The all-Republican Texas Supreme Court has declined to remove Democrat lawmakers from office over their 2025 quorum break, ruling that the Texas Constitution leaves enforcement of legislative attendance to the House itself, not the judiciary.
In a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock, the court rejected petitions filed by Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to oust lawmakers who fled the state during last summer’s special session on congressional redistricting.
The opinion stated that, while the quorum break raised significant constitutional questions, the Texas Constitution specifically grants the House authority to “compel the attendance of absent members” and discipline lawmakers.
“For a brief time in the summer of 2025, the Texas House of Representatives lacked the two-thirds quorum required to do business,” Blacklock wrote, noting that dozens of lawmakers left the state “for the express purpose of preventing the House from functioning.”
The Democrats returned roughly two weeks later, allowing the House to resume business and ultimately pass the redistricting legislation signed by Abbott.
Blacklock wrote that the Constitution already provides political remedies for quorum-breaking, including the House’s ability to compel attendance and punish absent members.
“Whatever wrong may have been committed by the absent House members, the Texas Constitution’s internal political remedies, none of which involve the judicial branch, were sufficient to the task of restoring the House’s ability to do business,” the opinion states.
The opinion also suggested the House possesses significantly broader constitutional authority to punish absent lawmakers than it exercised during the 2025 walkout.
While lawmakers imposed daily fines and withheld certain resources from absent members, Blacklock wrote those measures “barely scratched the surface of the House’s broad coercive authority to compel attendance ‘in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide.’”
The ruling comes just weeks after the Texas House Administration Committee approved more than $420,000 in fines and enforcement costs against Democrat lawmakers tied to the walkout, roughly $8,354 per member. Under House rules in place at the time, absent lawmakers faced $500 daily fines and were required to reimburse expenses incurred during efforts to compel their return.
The House also adopted stricter anti-quorum-break rules before adjourning sine die, tripling daily fines and allowing lawmakers who flee during a call of the House to lose committee positions and seniority.
But while the court declined to intervene, Justice James Sullivan warned in a concurring opinion that future quorum breakers could still face removal from office.
“I concur because this constitutional crisis passed too quickly for us to engage in factfinding that might’ve justified quo warranto relief,” Sullivan wrote. “But we should be prepared to perform this grave task if legislators refuse to do their jobs again in the future.”
Sullivan repeatedly characterized the walkout as a constitutional crisis and argued the court may need to take a more active role if another quorum break occurs.
“When it comes to breaking quorum, maybe there won’t even be a next time,” Sullivan wrote before recounting previous Democrat walkouts in 2003, 2021, and 2025. “I won’t be holding my breath, though.”
He concluded with a direct warning to future lawmakers considering another walkout.
“Were it to happen yet again, I believe the next set of quorum-breakers had better be ready to pay us a visit,” Sullivan wrote. “Our original jurisdiction to issue writs of quo warranto will empower us to inquire whether they’ve abandoned their legislative offices and, if we so find, to throw them out.”
Following the ruling, Democrat caucus chair Gene Wu celebrated the decision and blasted Abbott’s attempt to remove Democrats from office.
“When Greg Abbott threatened to arrest and expel us for denying him a quorum, we told him he should ‘come and take it.’ He tried!” Wu said in a statement.
Wu accused Abbott and Paxton of attempting to weaponize the courts after Democrats fled the state to block what they described as a politically motivated congressional map.
“Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court said: no,” Wu said. “The Constitution does not let a Governor erase voters’ choices when their choices are inconvenient to him.”
Wu concluded by saying Abbott “was wrong, weak, and after all his bluster he couldn’t come and take a damn thing.”
Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said the ruling sends a clear warning to Democrats considering another quorum break in the future.
“No elected official has the right to abandon their duties, flee the state, and shut down the people’s business,” Mahaleris said in a statement to Texas Scorecard. “Governor Abbott’s legal action is what brought derelict Democrats back to Texas to do their jobs and pass the Big Beautiful Map. Now, SCOTX has warned them against pulling a similar stunt in the future.”
“If Democrats abandon their offices again, the Governor will bring them right back to the Texas Supreme Court,” he added.
