The Texas Supreme Court has denied mandamus in a case brought by a secessionist group to force the State Republican Party chair to put an “independence” proposition on the ballot for the upcoming primary election
.In re Texas Nationalist Movement (No. 24-0025; January 10, 2024) arose from the GOP Party chair’s rejection of the group’s petition to place a proposition on the primary ballot reading: “The State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.” Setting aside the question of how Texas could possibly “reassert” a “status” that it doesn’t have, the group argued that they timely presented a petition with well over the 97,000 or so votes needed to get on the ballot. The group claimed to have collected about 170,000 signatures, of which it scrubbed 30,426 as deficient. When presented with the petition on December 11, the party chair rejected it on the grounds that it should have been filed on December 10, and, in any event, that the electronic signatures were essentially worthless. The Court apparently concurred and denied mandamus without an opinion.
As ridiculous as it is to devote scarce judicial resources to such nonsense, it is worth pointing out that the Republican Party platform continues to encourage the legislature to put the question on the ballot, as well asserts that Texas has the right of secession. Fortunately, the Legislature rarely looks to the platform of either party when making policy decisions.
