QUORUM CALL: Texas Supreme Court Allows for Arrest of Democrats Who Don’t Show Up at Capitol.

Legislative rules generally empower the sergeant-at-arms to compel the attendance of absent members, and to employ law enforcement or other assistance. Back when Tennessee was about to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, opponents — Democrats, then, too! — absented themselves and had to be hunted down with help from private detectives, if I recall correctly Pinkertons. One history I read referred to “a wild chase across ridgetops on muleback by moonlight” or something like that (I’m going from memory). Anyway, enough were caught to allow a quorum and the Fourteenth Amendment passed.

The Democrats’ “Fleebagger” tradition goes back over 150 years!