Public Banned from People's House
as Police Escort Scheme Backfires
Capitol Inside
August 19, 2025
The Texas Capitol was swarming on Tuesday afternoon with tourists who traveled from other cities and states to see the citadel of state government and politics in the nation's second largest state. Many were disappointed and some felt cheated when they were turned away at the door of the chamber that GOP members frequently refer to as the People's House because of something that the Republicans who control it didn't want the public to see.
The Texas House floor and gallery were off-limits to members of the public throughout the day after GOP leaders transformed the chamber into a makeshift holding cell for a Democrat who refused to go along with a scheme that Republicans hatched as a way to keep a leash on Democratic colleagues returned voluntarily on Monday after a two-week absence.
Democratic State Rep. Nicole Collier of Fort Worth spent the night on the House floor after refusing to give the Republicans permission to have a state police officer follow her everywhere she goes for two days as a condition of a supervised release.
Collier appeared poised for another overnight stay in the chamber where at least four Democratic colleagues joined her midway through the afternoon after ripping up agreements they'd signed to allow Department of Public Safety officers shadow them around the clock until the House meets again on Wednesday.
Collier's lawyers filed a petition for habeas corpus in a state district court in Austin on Tuesday - contending she's been subject to "illegal confinement" and "illegal restraint by the government" with the detainment as the price of her defiance. Collier hasn't been charged with any crimes - and she's not considered a suspect in any.
But she's turned the impromptu policy into a public relations calamity for Speaker Dustin Burrows and Republicans and gold mine for the Democrats in the fight to stop a congressional map by sparking another round of national stories on the battle here as fodder for Democrats who are pondering remap efforts in other states.
The U.S. House redistricting quest in Texas has been a PR disaster for the Republicans on an array of fronts - from tales of FBI pursuits to DPS stakeouts and surveillance to public hearings that were a sham to vows of removing absent Democrats from office to a strange strategy of silence that GOP members on select committees embraced at them.
But the police escort strategy takes the cake as a maneuver that House leaders came up with apparent desperation after unleashing a spate of threats they didn't have the authority or ability to back up.
Burrows and his lieutenants saw an opportunity to finally land a punch when they fielded a quorum on Monday for the first time since July. Instead of expressing appreciation to the Democrats for relinquishing their grip on the quorum and reporting to the chamber to allow a vote on the GOP map, House leaders sought to take away their rights to come and go as they pleased with law enforcement officers on their tail around the clock.
Twenty-four of the 25 members who were back in action on Monday signed the police escort permission slips with Collier as the lone holdout initially. As many as eight tore up the agreements on Tuesday and joined the protest on the floor where the Republicans have put them in position to be portrayed as political prisoners and martyrs.
"I refuse to comply with this unreasonable, un-American and unnecessary request," Collier said on Tuesday in an interview with CBS News.
GOP State Rep. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth reportedly told Collier that she could sleep in her Capitol office. But that would dilute the PR value of the protest and subsequent detainment. The Republicans have set the stage for a historic slumber party on the floor of the Legislature's lower chamber.
more to come ...
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