Texas Supreme Court sides with Abbott in approving arrest warrants for absent members of the Texas House

Following a series of injunctions granted by local district courts, the Texas Supreme Court has decided that the Texas House may issue arrest warrants for absent members, according to a report by The Hill.

The high court's decision came just hours after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and state House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) petitioned the court to overturn an order from a Travis County judge prohibiting the state from arresting the legislators.

“We look forward to the Supreme Court upholding the rule of law and stopping another stall tactic by the Texas Democrats,” Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Abbott, said in a statement.

Following this ruling, the House issued 52 arrest warrants for Democratic members who were not present, according to an article by Newsweek.

"I am hoping they will come because the warrants have been issued and they don't want to be arrested," State Rep. Jim Murphy said. "It is incredible to me that you have to arrest people to do the job they campaigned for, for which they took an oath of office to uphold the Texas Constitution."

Additionally, the Biden administration seems to have expressed its support for Texas Democrats to return to Austin for the second special legislative session in response to a question regarding Biden's support for Texas Democrats staying in Washington, D.C., during a press briefing on Aug 5.

"Well, certainly the president believes that one, they’ve been outspoken advocates and champions of voting rights," I can’t say I’m exactly following too closely the legislative calendar there, but certainly if it required them to be there, we would support that."

The Austin Journal reported that during the first special session, when Texas Democrats were in Washington, D.C., the 52 members were still receiving their $221 per diem salary.

ABC13 confirmed that the missing Democratic legislators did indeed get their per diem, with each absent legislator earning $6,630 during the first special session, which lasted 30 days, at a cost of $221 per day; when all 67 Democrats are included, the overall cost of the per diem pay is $444,210; with all 150 legislators included, the total cost is $994,500.

Although numerous Democrats have pledged to refund their per diems, no member has done so.