# Texas State Representative Nicole Collier is now a political prisoner
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 19, 2025, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249 "2025-08-19T02:09:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/1 "2025-08-19T02:09:28Z")
I just saw on Rachael Maddow on MSNBC that Texas State Representative Nicole Collier is being held as a political prisoner in the Texas State House, because she won’t sign a GOP “consent decree” to have Texas law enforcement “accompany” her 24 hours a day, subject to arrest at any time. The Texas GOP has done this to all other Texas House Democrats as well.
This is outrageous!
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### Author:  [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/2 "2025-08-19T02:11:15Z")
I saw this and my jaw dropped. WTH?
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/3 "2025-08-19T02:19:21Z")
Can some legal expert Dopers tell us how much this applies?
> **[False imprisonment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_imprisonment)**
>
> False imprisonment or unlawful imprisonment occurs when a person intentionally restricts another person's movement within any area without legal authority, justification, or the restrained person's permission.
> Actual physical restraint is not necessary for false imprisonment to occur. A false imprisonment claim may be made based upon private acts, or upon wrongful governmental detention.
> For detention by the police, proof of false imprisonment provides a basis to obtain a writ of habeas cor...
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### Author:  [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/4 "2025-08-19T02:19:29Z")
And she’s pale white and blonde— oh, wait…
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### Author:  [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/5 "2025-08-19T02:42:17Z")
Sounds like kidnapping to me, for sure.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/6 "2025-08-19T15:09:33Z")
> [@rippingtons\_fan](#):
>
> The Texas GOP has done this to all other Texas House Democrats as well.
Did the other Democrats sign the permission slips, then?
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### Author:  [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/7 "2025-08-19T15:29:11Z")
As far as I know, she’s the only one who has not signed, at least I haven’t heard of any others refusing to sign.
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### Author:  [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/8 "2025-08-19T19:36:58Z")
Not all of them have even returned to Congress to sign the forms. James Talarico is one of those who hasn’t returned.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/9 "2025-08-19T20:34:19Z")
Does she at least get 3 hots and a cot during her incarceration?
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### Author:  [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/10 "2025-08-19T20:43:03Z")
So are they physically preventing her from leaving? LIke, with actual obstruction of the doors?
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/11 "2025-08-19T20:47:39Z")
Of note: they are requiring the Dems to pay for the escort as well.
And calling it a permission slip is purposefully demeaning.
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2025, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/12 "2025-08-19T23:55:00Z")
Here’s the straight dope from the _Texas Tribune_ (Non-profit media. A reliable source for Texas news):
> **[Rep. Nicole Collier spends night on Texas House floor after refusing police...](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/19/nicole-collier-texas-house-dps-escort-redistricting-quorum/)**
>
> The Fort Worth Democrat refused to sign a permission slip that allowed quorum-breaking lawmakers to leave the Capitol while being shadowed by a state trooper.
> A Texas House Democrat was confined in the Capitol overnight after she refused a police escort that Republican leaders imposed on lawmakers who participated in a two-week walkout over a GOP mid-decade redistricting plan.
>
> Rep. [Nicole Collier](https://www.texastribune.org/directory/nicole-collier/), D-Fort Worth, declined on Monday afternoon to sign a slip giving her permission from Speaker [Dustin Burrows](https://www.texastribune.org/directory/dustin-burrows/), R-Lubbock, to leave the House floor with a state law enforcement officer shadowing her.
>
> …
>
> After the lawmakers [returned to](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/18/photos-texas-democrats-return-austin-redistricting/) the Texas House, [Speaker] Burrows announced they would each be subject to an around-the-clock police escort to ensure their attendance when the chamber reconvenes on Wednesday morning to vote out the map. He added that Democratic lawmakers would be responsible for any state costs incurred in ensuring their attendance.
>
> Most Democrats signed the permission slip required to leave the Capitol with a police officer in tow, even while objecting to the mandatory surveillance and emphasizing that they would not have returned to Austin on Monday if they planned to skip the vote on Wednesday.
> …
A bit of political theater IMHO but in a good cause, i.e., bringing public attention to the Republican bullies in the Texas House.
Don’t know what would have happened if she had walked out with no “permission slip” and police on her tail. We’re in Texas, so maybe the cops would have felt justified in shooting her. \
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2025, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/13 "2025-08-20T08:54:13Z")
> [@Velocity](#):
>
> So are they physically preventing her from leaving? LIke, with actual obstruction of the doors?
Cross-linking a post on the same topic:
> [@Texas 2025 redistricting standoff -- what is endgame?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-2025-redistricting-standoff-what-is-endgame/1021745/69):
>
> > [@Texas 2025 redistricting standoff -- what is endgame?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-2025-redistricting-standoff-what-is-endgame/1021745/68):
> >
> > Democratic politicians in Texas have now acquiesced to law enforcement monitoring of their movements though they have not committed a crime. How does this not become the new normal moving forward? If this works in Texas how does it not spread to other states? If Democrats left the state once to prevent a quorum what’s to say that they won’t do so again in the very near future?
>
> You neglected this bit of joy:
>
> [KOMO News: “UPDATE (11:30 P.M.) - The Texas House Democrats are reporting that demonstrators who showed up to support Rep. Collier have been arrested by Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers.”](https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/texas-rep-nicole-collier-remains-on-house-floor-after-refusing-law-enforcement-escort?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#:~:text=UPDATE%20(11:30%20P.M.)%20%2D%20The%20Texas%20House%20Democrats%20are%20reporting%20that%20demonstrators%20who%20showed%20up%20to%20support%20Rep.%20Collier%20have%20been%20arrested%20by%20Texas%20Department%20of%20Public%20Safety%20Troopers.)
>
> So they aren’t just harassing and detaining legislators with presumptive ‘civil arrest’ (unclear under what authority Republican House speaker Dustin Burrows believes that he has to require legislators to sign a statement that commits them to showing up for the Wednesday morning vote or how that in any way justifies supervision and detainment) but are allegedly engaging in what is unambiguously [prior restraint](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/prior_restraint) on political speech of people freely demonstrating in support of Representative Nicole Collier and in opposition to effectively putting state legislators into custodial supervision without a court order.
>
> > [@Texas 2025 redistricting standoff -- what is endgame?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-2025-redistricting-standoff-what-is-endgame/1021745/68):
> >
> > This may be flirting with hyperbole here, but the Gestapo in Nazi Germany was used to enforce ideological conformity among German politicians and the populace at large. It seems a very small leap to go from this to that.
>
> The _ **Geheime Staatspolizei** _ (‘Gestapo’) were a federal state security agency under the Nazi regime, but yes, at a state level this is clearly an effort to suppress dissent against an irregular, politically motivated redistricting scheme unambiguously intended as an illegal partisan gerrymandering. It is being done out in plain sight with no shame or any effort to conceal it in the clothing of legitimacy, doubtless _pour encourager les autres_ in suppressing political dissent. Or, as Heather Cox Richardson plainly observes, [“On the road to authoritarianism, this is a whole factory of red flags.”](https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-19-2025)
Stranger
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### Author:  [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2025, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/texas-state-representative-nicole-collier-is-now-a-political-prisoner/1022249/14 "2025-08-20T22:03:44Z")
Today from a bathroom, Collier called into a conference call with Gavin Newsom, Cory Booker, and the head of the DNC, and was forced to disconnect when someone told her she was committing a felony.
[https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5462242-texas-democrat-lawmaker-felony-warning/](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5462242-texas-democrat-lawmaker-felony-warning/)
What the actual fuck?