A Democratic state lawmaker who fled Texas in protest of a GOP redistricting effort is asking a court to let her exit the Capitol, after she was told she needs a police escort to leave the building.

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.

  • slate@sh.itjust.works
    9·
    15 hours ago

    They can arrest anyone for anything they want. The executive branch controls the police and has that power. If it is an illegal arrest, you can pay thousands to a lawyer and spend a few months fighting it in court, but that is only after you are arrested. There is no magic “bail” number that lets you out of jail immediately, it’s set by a judge on a case by case basis and takes a day or so to set. If you are a flight risk, as they claim is true in this case, you will not be allowed out on bail. If they really want to, they can hold you in a cell without letting you in front of a judge to get a bail set. Is it legal? No. Does it happen all of the time? Yes. Will anyone do anything about it? Never. Especially when POTUS is fully backing it.

    • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
      15·
      15 hours ago

      I hear you, but no. If, and that’s a big if, the local state courts didn’t put an immediate stop to any of the illegal things you suggest they can do, then the federal would.

      And you are conflating multiple issues. They can have the police follow her, as far as I know that isn’t illegal. So she can easily say that she is not a flight risk. But, she will also have broken no laws by leaving the capital building. So if they arrest her, the local courts will 99% just dismiss it and let here go.

      She isn’t joe nobody. She has the weight of the democratic party behind her. That’s a lot of lawyers, and a lot of money.

      They are just posturing on the part about not being allowed to leave without signing the note.

      • slate@sh.itjust.works
        61·
        14 hours ago

        I promise you, your faith in the system is admirable but unfounded. POTUS literally personally requested this, SCOTUS is full of bribe-taking jokers, and Congress is half made up of spineless tools that have demonstrated over and over again that they will defend their own in the face of literally anything, including Insurrection, rape, and child trafficking.

        And, again, it literally does not matter in the slightest what the courts say, they can not go back in time and undo an arrest. And courts can’t just go around ruling on random things. They need someone to bring a case to them, and cases require time, money, evidence, and cause/damages to put together. Then it takes months or years to move through the court system. Even if they could rule on whatever they want, they have no method of enforcement. That’s the executive branch’s job.

        You may find SCOTUS’s ruling on the Trail of Tears and the Executive branch’s subsequent actions quite interesting. Hint: SCOTUS said no, Andrew Jackson did it anyway, no invisible force stopped any of it happening, legal or not.