Rep. Nicole Collier, the Democratic state lawmaker who spent Monday night inside the Texas Capitol, is asking a court to let her exit the building, alleging she’s facing “illegal restraint by the government” after she was told she needs a police escort to leave.
The Fort Worth lawmaker and dozens of other Democrats left Texas earlier this month to delay a vote on a GOP-led plan to redraw the state’s congressional map.
The Democrats returned to Texas in recent days and they were given state police escorts to ensure they will show up when the state House convenes Wednesday, but Collier refused to sign a “permission slip” to be under escort by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Collier says she slept on the House floor overnight.
They said Democrat reps are not allowed to leave without a 24/7 police escort. I’m sure there are cops at the door that will arrest them if they do not comply. I didn’t find anything explicitly stating that in my 3 minutes of searching, but IMO it is abundantly clear that that is the case. There was a live stream of it all happening if you really want to know the details.
Technically, the executive branch can not say what is illegal or not. However, they control the police and can order them to do whatever or arrest you for whatever. Legal, illegal, constitutional, unconstitutional, whatever. Checks and balances kick in later. You can fight the legality of an arrest in court, but that is after you’ve been arrested, booked, and publicly shamed with a mugshot and whatnot. And you’ll need to pay thousands of dollars to a lawyer to fight it, even if you are completely innocent or the arrest was completely illegal.