A circuit judge in downstate Quincy has rejected Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s petition to compel Illinois law enforcement to enforce civil warrants issued by the Texas House speaker and arrest Democrats who fled their state to block Republicans from enacting a new GOP-favored congressional map.

In his ruling, Adams County Circuit Judge Scott Larson said repeatedly that the Illinois circuit courts do not have the “inherent power” to consider the case, in part, because the warrants were issued by Texas’ legislative branch and no Texas court has issued a ruling to enforce them.

“This Illinois circuit court does not have the inherent power to initiate, consider and determine whether the actions of foreign legislators while in a special legislative session were contumacious and done for the purpose of willfully evading civil legislative Quorum Warrants issued by the State of Texas House of Representatives,” Larson wrote in his ruling issued Wednesday, using a somewhat archaic term meaning “willfully disobedient to authority.“

Larson also said the court did not have the power “to direct Illinois law enforcement officers, or to allow the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives of the State of Texas, or any officer appointed by her, to execute Texas civil Quorum Warrants upon nonresidents temporarily located in the State of Illinois.”

Larson said the enforcement of the civil warrants was limited to within the boundaries of the state of Texas — a fact that legal experts had said made Paxton’s court petition a long-shot legal act.

“As the petitioner has failed to present a legal basis for the court to obtain subject mater jurisdiction over this cause of action, this court is without jurisdiction to grant petitioner’s emergency motion to rule on pleadings,” Larson wrote.

Paxton’s court petition, filed last week using Illinois Republican state Sen. Jil Tracy of Quincy as an uncompensated temporary assistant Texas attorney general, represented another level of escalation in the national battle between Republicans and Democrats following Texas House Democrats’ fleeing to Illinois and other northern states to deny Republicans the quorum needed to enact a mid-decade redrawing of Texas’ congressional districts to flip five Democratic seats Republican.

The remap effort is backed by President Donald Trump, whose administration is encouraging similar actions in other Republican-led states as a means of holding the slim GOP majority for the remainder of Trump’s second term. Governors of Democratic states, such as California, are plotting similar counter moves with their state’s maps.

After House Democrats left Texas more than a week ago to prevent the quorum, the Republican speaker of the Texas House, Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, issued the civil warrants to compel the Democrats to return to Austin. The Texas legislature was in the midst of a special session that was ostensibly called to act on relief for the deadly July 4th floods that killed more than 100 people in Texas’ Hill Country.

Burrows announced the chamber will adjourn its special session on Friday. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has vowed to continue to call special sessions to consider congressional redistricting until House Democrats return to Texas.

The petition named 33 Texas Democratic House members who have been staying at a secure hotel in west suburban St. Charles. The Democrats have reportedly been discussing whether to return to Texas after successfully blocking the new map in the first special session and raising the issue as a national political topic.

Originally Published: August 14, 2025 at 7:02 AM CDT