From my understanding, the Lt. Governor couldn’t sign the bill because it was obvious that the time stamp had been changed to make it look like all the votes were in before midnight.
Didn’t whoever changed the time stamp commit a crime? Why aren’t charges being brought forth?
Prosecutorial discretion.
It could well be felony tampering with a government record, but I doubt any prosecutor knows anything more about the situation than what’s on the news right now. Investigations take time.
Isn’t there a more-or-less time-honored tradition of legislative bodies (including Congress) stopping the clock at 23:59, when it seems they aren’t going to get some must-pass or otherwise perceived-important business finished in time, and there’s a midnight deadline?
Wiki article. “Stopping the clock” can sometimes be done literally, or the phrase may be used as a metaphor for working past a midnight deadline. They get away with it when TPTB let it happen.
Post Offices have been known to stay open late and “stop the clock” just before midnight on April 15, so people can get their tax returns in the mail on time.
From what I can see, the Texas guys did a whole bunch of underhanded dirty tricks, but “stopping the clock” (or back-dating the records, which would be substantially equivalent) is probably the least of their transgressions, simply because it’s commonly done and TPTB commonly look the other way.
In this case, the Lt. Gov. was apparently more honest than usual, if he balked at signing it because it was late.
Stopping the clock, if all agree, seems like a fairly innocuous thing to do. But given the super-strict filibuster rules and the exact enforcement of them at the session, stopping the clock to cheat and win that round would have been pretty low and I suspect gotten lots of bad press and ill will.
I live in Texas and Wendy Davis is my senator (Go, Wendy, Go!) The practical reason there will be no prosecution is because it was done in service of the Republican Party. Compared to the degree of gerrymandering that goes on here, fudging a time stamp is nothing.
Well and also jurisdiction would lie with the Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg’s Public Integrity Unit, but Perry defended it after she refused to resign (which would have allowed him to appoint a Republican) after her DWI earlier this year. So there’s that.
This is a bullshit answer based on political bias instead of fact and has no business being presented as anything other than that.
I think you meant *defunded * LinusK
Considering that they made her stop because talking about sonograms isn’t “germane” to an abortion discussion? Some rules are more important than others?
I am not an expert on Texan constitutional law, but I’d be surprised if the state constitution didn’t contain a clause mimicking the federal clause that grants members of Congress immunity from arrest for events occurring during session.
The Constitution (I.6.1) says members of Congress are “… in all Cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their attendance at the Session of their Respective Houses…”
It does not say they have immunity from crimes committed for events in session. And in any case, I’d guess alteration of the record would be a felony.
If the Texan legislators were immune from arrest for events occurring during sessions, I’d expect gun play to occur.
I’m a Texan, and not a Democrat, and I don’t find what Victor Charlie said to be hard to believe at all.
The Texas Republican Party seems to have gone off the deep end lately, and rather than trying to govern the state effectively, they seem more interested in using their supermajority in the Legislature to push their ideological agenda via what they consider appropriate legislation.
They’re taking their supermajority as a mandate that everyone in the state believes the same crazy BS that they do, when in reality I suspect that a large percentage (majority even?) who voted Republican voted that way as the lesser of two evils, rather than because they’re committed to Perry & co’s particular brand of loony hyper-conservatism.
Texas really does seem to be a state where there is an excluded middle in terms of the political parties- the Democratic parties seem bent on minority issues and social welfare issues, and the Republicans seem bent on crazy religiously based issues and/or a particularly blinkered rural Texas viewpoint. Neither one pays much attention to the average middle-class Texan living in Houston, Austin or the DFW Metroplex who isn’t a minority and isn’t a religious wacko or hick from the middle of nowhere.
They don’t pay much attention to the hicks in the middle of nowhere, either. Given the recent events, I consider that a good thing.
That does seem to apply.
I don’t know if there’s another section of code that exempts legislative officials, though.
And for whatever it’s worth:
Are we also eager to prosecute that offense?
If Code Pink runs into the middle of the Senate chamber with a bullhorn, absolutely, no question. This was a little different, though. First, take a look at the whole statute:
The unruly mob was exceptionally ruly for many, many hours until the last 15 minutes or so of the session, and until then there was no apparent intention to disturb the proceedings. Things got heated when there was a perceived violation of the rules of order, and the crowd made a demand that the rules be followed with chants of “shame” and “let her speak.” When the gallery was ordered to be cleared, they complied and continued to voice their displeasure outside the chambers. At trial their defense would be that they had no intention to hinder the proceedings but rather demanded that the rules of order be followed, and that they complied with the official request to desist when they cleared the gallery. That may sound like a complete BS defense to you, but in Travis County the jury pool is going to be very, very, very liberal, and both the general populace and the District Attorney regard the Governor and Lieutenant Governor with considerable distaste. Even if the DA had any interest in prosecuting, it would be a PR nightmare for everyone involved that the mommies of Travis County were on trial and the legislators are perceived as possibly skating on felony tampering charges.
Well, that answers the question of why a prosecution would likely fail.
And in the same spirit, here’s why a prosecution for the clock business would likely fail:
Hat tip to lieu for the link.
If that’s correct, then there was no tampering and no crime. However, one of the claims is that the vote actually started after midnight - at the same time that Republican senators crowded around the Secretary of the Senate to vote, Democratic senators supposedly ran forward with their cellphones raised showing it was after midnight. So stopping the clock at midnight is okay, but starting the clock after midnight is a no-no, and knowingly altering the records if the vote actually didn’t start until after midnight would be a crime. Frankly, the whole thing was such a cluster-f I don’t know if anybody knows or can prove what happened either way, but the democrats supposedly agreed to drop the whole date issue when Dewhurst agreed that he couldn’t sign the bill, and I doubt the current DA has the political clout to pursue an investigation, so that’s probably the end of it.