Gov. Greg Abbott filed an emergency petition Tuesday with the Texas Supreme Court to remove state Rep. Gene Wu from office after Wu and other Democrats left the state to delay Republican efforts to redraw congressional district lines.

State and national Republicans this week are trying to pull out all the stops to punish Democratic lawmakers who fled,... We noted yesterday that Texas AG Paxton gently criticized Gov. Abbott’s decision to bring an emergency request to the state Supreme Court to try to remove at least one Texas Democrat from office this week,