Prof. Richard Painter Quoted by The Hill About FBI Forcing Democratic Legislators to Return to Texas

Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, was quoted by The Hill about Texas democrats breaking quorum in an effort to stall passage of newly drawn congressional maps. Many legislators travelled to New York and Illinois last Sunday. Democrats can technically stay out of the state as long as they want, which is why some republicans have floated the use of federal law enforcement to compel them to return to Texas. Some legal experts are skeptical that the FBI could intervene in the matter, noting that the agency is concerned with violations of federal law while the Texas situation is primarily an issue concerning individual states. Prof. Painter said, “I don’t see why the FBI would be involved in this at all. I mean this is Texas politics and the FBI has no business trying to enforce Texas state law. The only federal law that I think is being violated in Texas and in Illinois and several other states is voting rights. I think gerrymandering violates voting rights, but the U.S. Supreme Court’s not willing to do anything about it.” His comments alluded to a Supreme Court ruling in 2019 that determined gerrymandering is a political matter, not a legal one, and thus doesn’t fall under the purview of federal courts. He said that if he were detained by the FBI in that situation and they said he needed to return to Texas, “I’d be filing for a writ of habeas corpus tomorrow, and I think I’d win.”