ASHINGTON (AP) – The NAACP is urging the Justice Department to investigate whether a federal crime was being committed when Texas Republicans threatened to have their Democratic colleagues arrested.
The threats stemmed from their refusal to attend a legislative session in an effort to try and block a sweeping elections overhaul bill that makes it harder to vote in the state.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson sent the letter late Wednesday to Kristen Clarke, who runs the Justice Department’s civil rights division. In the letter, Johnson said he had conferred with at least three of the Democrats who had been threatened with arrest and agreed that federal authorities should step in to investigate.
“At this time when political minorities are threatened with being rounded up and imprisoned in Texas, the eyes of the country and the world are upon DOJ and how it deals with Texas’s actions,” Johnson wrote.
Earlier Wednesday, officers of the Texas House of Representatives delivered civil arrest warrants for more than 50 absent Democrats as frustrated Republicans ratcheted up efforts to end the standoff.
Some of the Democratic lawmakers have posted their arrest warrants to Twitter. Rep. Carl Sherman of DeSoto wrote, “Governor Abbott & Speaker Phelan are now calling for my arrest. To them I say I have never been arrested in my life, and if fighting for the rights of all Texans to vote is cause for arrest, then catch me if you can.”
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Governor Abbott & Speaker Phelan are now calling for my arrest. To them I say I have never been arrested in my life, and if fighting for the rights of all Texans to vote is cause for arrest, then catch me if you can. #txlege#VotingRights pic.twitter.com/ix5IqAfj2Z— State Rep. Carl O. Sherman (@CarlOShermanTX) August 12, 2021
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