SCORCHED-EARTH

Texas House Speaker Issues Arrest Warrants for 52 Democrats Who Fled Over Voting-Rights Law

After Republicans in the state House voted to empower law enforcement to search for the missing lawmakers and return them to their legislative posts.

Texas’ House speaker signed off on civil-arrest warrants late Tuesday for 52 of the legislature’s Democrats who have fled the Lone Star State to deny the majority party quorum to pass restrictive new voting laws. The move came hours after the Texas Supreme Court ruled that law-enforcement officers could detain the lawmakers. The liberals’ absence—they have stayed in Washington, D.C. for more than a month now—has denied the conservatives, who hold majorities in both the Texas Senate and House, the necessary quorum for new laws to pass. Republicans in the state House voted later in the day to empower law enforcement to search for the missing lawmakers and return them to their legislative posts “under warrant of arrest, if necessary.” State authorities do not have jurisdiction outside Texas, but some of the missing Democrats have begun returning to Austin.