Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Texas Dems Respond to GOP Arrest Warrants

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

50 Texas Democratic lawmakers who left Texas for Illinois to prevent the Texas House from approving unconstitutional redistricting maps that eliminate 5 Federal House dems seats, are beating Texas MAGA at their own game. Michael Popok explains why this “quorum breaking” move is legal under Texas law; why the arrest warrants issued by Texas won’t reach into Illinois; and how this tactic could likely lead to the bad maps being pulled off the table. Head to https://trymiracle.com/legalf and use the code: LEGALAF to claim your free 3 piece towel set and save over 40% off! Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Democrats in Texas, they've got the Republicans on the run and right where they want them to oppose the redistricting maps that would have eliminated five, five Democratic seats from the House in Texas. But 50, five, zero, Texas Democrats went off to Illinois. I happened to be in Chicago today, hosted by Governor J.B. Pritzker.

Why? Because they're in the process of quorum breaking or quorum busting to make sure that vote on the redistricting map created by the Republicans never takes place. Governor Abbott's upset about it. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is upset about it. What are they going to do about it?

What will the Texas Supreme Court say about it? They already tried this in 2021 successfully and Texans have been walking out on their legislature in order as the minority party in order to force change since 1870. I'm gonna catch you up on the most recent attempt that's going on right now before our very eyes. And also I have my hands on a brand new letter,

which is exclusive to Midas Touch and Legal AF from Democracy Forward, one of our collaborators, our main collaborators over on Legal AF YouTube channel, in which they've already sent the pre-suit, pre-litigation letter to Governor Abbott, who's threatened to remove these 50 Texas Democrats because they've quote unquote, abandoned their office. Abandoned their office.

They're doing exactly what they need to do to defend democracy and represent their constituents. They haven't abandoned their jobs. They have taken their jobs to a higher level and they're spending some time in Chicago. I'm Michael Popak, I'm spending some time with you. You're on Midas Touch and Legal AF. Take a minute, hit the Midas Touch subscribe button,

come on over to Legal AF subscribe button as well. All right, what happened? What are we talking about? About a week ago, we covered it on Legal AF podcast this past Saturday, Texans announced a way for Donald Trump to steal the midterm election, or try to anyway. One of the ways if he can't win at the ballot, he can't win at the voting booth

is to try to eliminate the amount of Democrats that can be elected to Congress. There you go. If you can't get rid of the voter, you get rid of the game. You change the game. So they redrew their maps, pursuant to the 2020 census and lo and behold, five Democratic seats magically disappeared.

Five, no Republican seats. So what was that? A purpley state became ruby red under this map. That gives Donald Trump five less Democrats to have to worry about being voted from Texas as we figure out what's gonna happen at the midterms, right? He's tilting the play the game board in his favor right now. And this is where the fight is right now. So when that map came up for a vote in a special session, because Texas is in a 30-day

special session to handle this map and some other things. The Democrats who are in the minority, they may be in the minority, but they make up a quorum. And you have to have under Texas law, two thirds of the state legislators in the room at the same time to conduct business. So if you subtract 50, you don't have the two thirds. So that's what you got to do as a minority party when you object to something, you walk out, you run out.

Now the reason they left the state, some people might ask me, hey, Popak, why are they in Chicago? Are they like, are they hanging out? Are they hanging out here on the golden mile? Are they shopping? No, they needed to get as far away from Texas as possible because the arrest warrants that they knew were coming

by the Sergeant of Arms by the legislature and the legislation there, you know, the House and the Senate would not reach as far and won't reach into Illinois because the Texas Supreme Court, the last time they did a walkout in 2021 to protest against another bill that tried to take away people's voting rights,

this Texas Supreme Court said a couple of things. One, quorum busting or quorum breaking by a minority is a legitimate form of political exercise and representing your constituents. And the arrest warrants can be issued if they don't show, but the arrest warrants reach is only as far as the borders of Texas. Now, Texas might be the big sky country,

but it doesn't reach into Illinois. I wasn't a major in geography, but I kind of figured that out. And so did the 50 state Democrats. So they were like, we got to get out of here. You got to get out beyond the arrest warrant. So J.B. Pritzker, governor, one of the leaders of the resistance,

a likely 2028 political candidate for president, invited them to come to Chicago and here they are. No, I don't think they went to Lollapalooza, which ended last night, but they did come to Illinois. All right, now what's going on since? Firstly, Abbott has taken to the stage in social media and made an announcement that he's going to start, he's going to remove those 50 from their office

for abandoning their office. Okay, can the governor do that? No. Can a lawsuit do that? Maybe, but you'd have to prove abandonment. And as I said at the top of the hot take, this is the opposite of abandonment. They're representing their constituents

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Now, Democracy Forward, we have an exclusive letter here from them. They are a, not only are they a public interest group that's filed over 80 lawsuits against this administration just in the last six months, including two last week on the immigration rules. But they are also sent a pre-suit letter to Abbott reminding him that he can't remove people.

And we have the exclusive letter right here. Here's what Sky Perryman, who just did a hot take with me, you can come over to Legal AF YouTube and catch it about two new lawsuits. Here's what she wrote today, August 4th to Governor Abbott. Governor Abbott, last night you issued a statement stating that you would remove Texas state lawmakers

elected by their communities if they were not present today, Monday, at a special session. It appears you called the special session. It appears that you are doing the bidding of interest outside of Texas, including President Trump, who are seeking to prevent the fair representation of people in the state. All in bold now, you are not a king,

you have no authority to remove lawmakers elected by their communities in Texas from office. And then they say that there is a Texas Supreme Court case from 2021, which Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton knows, because he cited it in his letter that enables quorum breaking as a tactic of the legislative minority. And these 50 Senate Democrats

or Democrats are in the minority. And so they, the decision by the lawmakers to represent their communities by refusing to participate in this special session today is as the Texas constitution recognizes, Sky Perryman continues, an official act, not the abandonment of a constitutional duty. As your statement suggests,

it is in fact the judgment of these lawmakers that their communities are best served by the quorum break, which is a prerogative that Texas lawmakers have the right to exercise. I mean, the minority in Texas, Republican or Democrat, have been doing quorum breaking since 1870, all the way up to 2021 and now this most recent time. And so what she reminds Abbott in this letter

is that he doesn't have the ability to remove people for abandonment. They're gonna have to go through a removal. They're gonna have to go through a process through a court and they will be opposed. This is what she ends the letter with on page two. What is happening in the state of Texas is not just a test for the rights of Texans,

but one for the rights of everyone who wishes to live in a democracy in this nation. You and your allies have created an unprecedented political emergency for the people of Texas and across the nation. Thousands of Texans have testified against and spoken out to oppose the hastily drawn redistricting maps which seek to make invisible

and take the voices away from millions. While you have some powers at governor, you don't have the power to remove. Now this is a shot across the bow by democracy forward before they file their ultimate suit. So I think we're gonna have a number of suits. We're gonna have Paxson on behalf of Texas

filing some sort of action to remove these 50 lawmakers. There's already a fine of $500 a day running since 2021. They stuck that into new rules there. So there's gonna be that case. That's probably gonna be a state court case. And that ultimately goes up to the Texas Supreme Court. Separately, I could see a federal lawsuit being filed by the lawmakers.

There's also an arrest warrant that's been issued by the Sergeant of Arms to bring them home, but he doesn't have the long arm of the law to go grab them in Illinois. We have the clip of the arrest warrants being issued or authorized by the Sergeant of Arms in Texas. Let's run the clip.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker and members. Mr. Speaker, I move by the Sergeant of Arms in Texas. Let's run the clip. Thank you, Mr. Speaker and members. Mr. Speaker, I move that the Sergeant of Arms or officers appointed by her send for all absentees whose attendance is not excused for the purpose of securing and maintaining their attendance under warrant of arrest if necessary and this order to be continued beyond the adjournment of day session

and until the further order of the house. Members you've heard the motion this is a record vote. Clerk ring the bell. Segarin voting aye. Being 85 ayes and six nays the motion prevails the sergeant at arms and any officers appointed by her are directed to send for all absentees whose attendance is not excused for the purposes of securing and maintaining their attendance under warrant of arrest if necessary until further order of the house so i think there's going to be a lawsuit about that arrest warrant and get back before a federal judge on that and back up to the United States Supreme Court.

So there's a number of ways to, and then ultimately a substantive attack on the redistricting map as a violation of the Voting Rights Act and a violation of the constitution and the representative form of government that we have. This is the right thing. This is what defiance, people ask me,

what does defiance look like? What does disobedience look like? What does good trouble look like? How do we resist the Trump administration? How do we call out their depravity? You're watching it. 50 euros for me right now. Procedurally, there'll be some ins and outs. The speaker will call some procedural motions in Texas.

The governor will squawk more about removal. There'll be another injunction hearing. The other question is, do these things work? They do. In many cases, it forces the majority, who's trying to shove these maps or these rules or these pieces of legislation down people's throats to bargain, to negotiate, to compromise.

Sometimes that does happen. Depends on the length of the time, especially. If you can believe it, there was in Oregon, the Republicans walked out for six weeks. So there was no business for six weeks. Remember, quorum breaking means for as long as they're out, this body in Texas stops legislating, stops doing anything deliberative.

They can't act without the quorum. So they're all back in their offices. This 30 day session is on ice appropriately. So I think it's a bargaining tool. It's a negotiating tool. You might see some horse trading, no pun intended in Texas between maybe we don't lose five seats, we lose one seat or whatever it is, but they got to stay out

for as long as they can. But it's going to ultimately be decided back in the court system and we'll be right there for it at the corner of law and politics here on the Midas Touch Network on illegal AF. I'm glad you're here with me. Come on over to legal AF, the YouTube channel, hit the free subscribe button there. If we can just get any part of our audience

to match our subscriber base to match our audience, this would be fantastic. We've had over 220 million people view our work in the last nine months. I'll take 1% of that in the subscriber base. Just take some minute, flick your finger, hit the subscriber button, come on over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel

and I'll post this democracy forward letter on the Legal AF sub stack. So until my next report, this is Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF, me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF sub stack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the sub stack, you'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the

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