Looked more into Abbot’s plan regarding vacating legislators seats, since it was something I didn’t know much about and was somewhat surprised our governor had that power.
It’s actually much more interesting and ingenious than I thought. He doesn’t have the power to declare them vacated, which makes sense from a separation of powers perspective. Instead he has to direct the AG to sue in the appropriate district court to get them declared vacated. So at 3:00 PM today they’ll file suit (I’d imagine they already drafted up the pleadings, just waiting for filing time). Legislators will then either have to come back here and defend themselves, at which point the sergeant at arms and rangers can tard wrangle them back to the capitol. Or they stay away, and even if they hire lawyers to represent them, it’s not exactly a “good look” to refuse to show up to proceedings when your accused of abandoning the state and your job. Very interesting play, puts the dems in a damned if you do damned if you don’t type situation.
I’ve also attached the relevant AG opinion which Abbot is relying on for those curious.
