Court Win For Fugitive Texas Dems

Texas Senate Democrats now in their third week of self-imposed exile in New Mexico got a legal boost when their state's highest court refused to get involved in their redistricting boycott — although GOP lawmakers back home may not have given up.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican, said the Senate was expected Tuesday to consider legislative options — including possible fines — to coerce the 11 Democratic senators back to Texas.

"I expect that senators will consider appropriate measures against absent members as authorized by the Texas Senate rules and by the Texas Constitution, for the purpose of compelling their attendance," Dewhurst said.

While Senate rules don't address levying fines, the state Constitution says lawmakers "can compel the attendance of absent members ... under such penalties as each house may provide."

The absence of the Democrats since July 28 has brought the Senate to a standstill because the chamber does not have the necessary two-thirds members to conduct business.

Republican leaders last week asked the Texas Supreme Court to order the senators to return to Austin. The court on Monday rejected the request.

Democrats were pleased. "The Texas Supreme Court today acted with integrity," said Leticia Van de Putte, chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

The state's highest court offered no explanation but said the writ was denied without regard to constitutional arguments.

"I am very disappointed that the Supreme Court did not resolve this pending constitutional crisis," Gov. Rick Perry said.

Even before the ruling, Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Laredo, a heavily Hispanic and rural area of southern Texas. It accuses GOP leaders of trying to push their redistricting plan without adequately considering the views of more than 6,000 people who attended public hearings this summer.

The lawsuit also claims Republicans violated the federal Voting Rights Act by dropping a traditional rule requiring two-thirds of the Senate to agree to debate a bill. Such a change, according to the Voting Rights Act, must first be cleared by the U.S. Justice Department, said Renae Hicks, an attorney for the Democrats.

After the rule was dropped, the 11 Senate Democrats resorted to fleeing to New Mexico to block consideration of the GOP redistricting bill, partly because they believe the plan would minimize the representation of minorities and rural Texans in Congress.

Also Tuesday, an internal investigation found there was no wrongdoing at the Justice Department during a search for Texas Democrats who fled the state over the redistricting issue in May.

The probe concluded that Justice Department officials properly ignored requests by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and others to help track down about 50 House Democrats who went secretly to Ardmore, Okla., to prevent passage of the redistricting plan.

The investigation found that in one instance, an FBI agent contacted one of the missing legislators, who was a personal friend, but did not violate any agency policies.

The report documents numerous other calls to Justice Department officials in Texas from the state attorney general's office, the Texas Rangers, a Republican Party member and a state legislator.

"We found that, in response to these requests, department employees, with one exception, recognized that this was a state matter and did not provide any assistance to the search for Texas legislators," the report said.