GOP Gov Depicts Epic Win for Democrats
in SC Decision as Warning for the Future
Capitol Inside
May 15, 2026
Governor Greg Abbott sought to carve a public relations victory from a monumental defeat on Friday when he portrayed a state Supreme Court ruling that sided with state House Democrats in a fight over congressional redistricting as a warning shot for potential quorum breakers in the future.
Abbott suffered an embarrassing setback today when the high court on which Republicans have a monopoly rejected his push to have State Rep. Gene Wu thrown out of office for the part he played last summer in a walkout on the GOP redistricting plan as the Democratic Caucus chair in the House.
In a decision that was unanimous among the jurists who participated in it, the SCOTEX determined that the Democrats' holdout on the new U.S. House map was inconsequential to the outcome of the redistricting fight beyond a two-week delay that was tantamount to an inconvenience for the lawmakers from the ruling Republican Party here.
The court found that the absent Democrats had returned to Austin on their own accord after Republicans who control the lower chamber made a minimal effort to compel the missing lawmakers' attendance with threats of fines and sanctions. The Republicans ended up approving the map that President Donald Trump had ordered with five districts that are blue now targeted for the GOP.
But the governor refused to address any of the issues on which the high court that's dominated by Abbott appointees pinned the decision. The governor responded to the adverse ruling by claiming that the legal fight he'd initiated scared the Democrats into coming home so the Republicans could pass the map.
"Governor Abbott's legal action is what brought derelict Democrats back to Texas to do their jobs and pass the Big Beautiful Map," the state leader's office said in a statement that was post on X. “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.”
Abbott appointed seven of the Supreme Court's nine members to the state's highest bench - and he attempted to pressure them behind the scenes into acquiescing to his push to have Wu booted from the House seat in the Houston to which he's been elected seven times. The only Supreme Court member who did not side with Wu and the Democrats over the revenge-seeking governor for the GOP - Justice Kyle Hawkins - stayed on the sidelines during the vote on the Abbott petition.
The court - in the opinion that Chief Justice James Blaylock composed - ruled that the balance of power in state would government would be knocked out of balance if the judges bowed to Abbott. A ruling in Abbott's favor would have increased the power of the governor's office and the judiciary dramatically at the expense of the legislative branch. The authority to expel House and Senate members has always been reserved for the respective chambers. None of the Republicans in the House - however voiced objection to the governor's push to eliminate legislators he personally opposes with petitions to the court.
Abbott's camp seemed to be referring to Justice James Sullivan's concurring opinion with the threat of the court taking action in the future that all but one of its members refused to take in the case involving Wu. "Were it to happen yet again, I believe the next set of quorumbreakers had better be ready to pay us a visit," Sullivan wrote after siding with the Democrats and the other Republicans on the court against the sitting governor..
more to come ...
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