Texas Supreme Court Won’t Hear Lawsuit Filed by Proponents of Secession Ballot Measure on Republican Primary Ballot

Posted on by January 10, 2024

As previously described at this website, Texas permits initiatives on primary ballots, and this year a group that favors secession for Texas filed an initiative to appear on the March 5 Texas Republican primary ballot.  But the party rejected the signatures, claiming that they were filed a day too late, and also that electronic signatures are invalid.

On January 10, the group asked the Texas Supreme Court to hear their lawsuit that their initiative should be on the ballot.  But the same day, that court refused to hear the case.  See this story.

It appears the proponents will now file in a trial state court, which must hear the case.  State Supreme Courts, like the U.S. Supreme Court, don’t need to hear lawsuits filed directly in that State Supreme Court.  Thanks to Jim Riley for the link.  The name of the case is In re Texas Nationalist Movement.

Comments

Texas Supreme Court Won’t Hear Lawsuit Filed by Proponents of Secession Ballot Measure on Republican Primary Ballot — 26 Comments

  1. Per previous court rulings in Texas over the past year or so, we know the Texas GOP’s claims about electronic signatures being invalid is untrue.

  7. A suit for a writ of mandamus may be filed in either an appellate court or the Supreme Court. In Texas, party chairs when performing part of the nomination process are considered state actors. The TNM is demanding that RPT Chair Matt Rinaldi perform his ministerial duty to certify the petitions and place the proposition on the primary ballot.

    The Texas Supreme Court may prefer that an appellate court act as sort of a trial court, and then hear the appeal.

    It is not clear that TNM has standing. They collected signatures on behalf of voters who claimed that they would be voting in the Republican primary. At the same time they were also collecting signatures from Democrats. There may be Republican signatories who have standing.

    It is also unknown how scrupulous TNM was. The rejection letter from the RPT included one signed by “hjkljkljkl”. The Election Code requires that signings be witnessed and verified the registration status of each signer.

    Overseas ballots need to be sent overseas by January 20. The TNM indicated that means that the ballots need to be prepared NOW. The lawyer for the TNM said he had a planned vacation which resulted in a delay of almost two weeks. A reasonable response from the Supreme Court might be, “so?”

    The State of Texas should not be paying for propositions on the primary ballot. It is a violation of the Texas Constitution to pay private entities except specific limited purposes. It is bad enough to subsidize nominations, which might be considered a public purpose. But ballot propositions? NO. The RPT has a convention process. Republican primary voters can attend the precinct caucuses.

  8. @SoG,

    That case is on appeal, the district judge stayed his own injunction, and it specifically excluded petitions by the Democrats and Republicans. And the district court decision was bozo anyhow.

  12. The only thing I see here is that the current SYSTEM in TEXAS will do everything to thwart any secession attempt. The originalists of the petition should have know better than to wait until the last minute and chance it. Shame on them. Dot your “t’s” and “i’s next time.”

  21. ANY REAL EFFORT TO DIVIDE CA AND TX INTO MORE STATES OF THE UNION ???

    SENATE ROT IS SEVERE.

    CA = WY —- YEAH SURE FOR TROLL MORONS

  23. When you have a President of the understage like Joe bide need to succeed from the Union.

  24. We will have a President like Joe bide. Need to succeed from the Union and become our own country.

  26. Biden should be seceded from the planet and launched in a one way rocket to space.

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