Just minutes after midnight on Wednesday, June 26, thousands of online spectators, myself included, watched in horror as the Texas Senate lost whatever credibility it might have had when it attempted to change the official time stamp on Senate Bill 5.
Failure appeared certain for SB5, which, if passed, significantly restricted Texas women’s reproductive rights. True, District 10 Senator Wendy Davis’ nearly 12 1/2-hour filibuster had been shot down on three separate points of order, but the parliamentary inquiries managed to run the clock to midnight, after which a vote would have been unconstitutional.
And yet amid the screaming and chanting men and women in the gallery, who were attempting to thwart any chance of the bill getting passed, senators huddled together and appeared to be deliberating. Soon, in the early hours of the new day, those witnessing the events unfold on the Internet were met with this shocking bit of news. Someone was smart enough and quick enough to capture the images and post them for all to see.
The vote passed — seven ayes to one nay! But more importantly, the vote had occurred on June 26!
I assume that a perceptive Congressional aide pointed out this bill-killing technicality to whoever was keeping minutes, because the image was swiftly altered to the following:
Were my eyes deceiving me? Was this really happening? Did the Texas Senate just doctor the official date in front of thousands of witnesses?
At first I didn’t believe it. I told myself that I must have imagined seeing June 26, which would have voided the vote. This is the United States, I reminded myself, not the Soviet Union. I was viewing official state records, not misinformation out of the Pravda.
What did it mean that it now read June 25? Was that it? After Wendy Davis’s hours-long filibuster, the Republicans still found the nerve to ram though a bill?after it was constitutionally allowed to do so?
As arresting and unnerving as the time alteration was, I couldn’t believe how nefarious the Republicans’ treatment of Davis had been throughout the entirety of her filibuster, raising points of order on seemingly irrelevant actions such as her mentioning Planned Parenthood’s budget or her needing help to readjust her back brace. Republicans were very quick to follow the rule-book in these cases and yet equally as quick to ignore it altogether when it suited their needs — in this case, to pass SB5, even if it meant altering time itself.
Even the McDonald’s breakfast menu has a stricter adherence to the clock than the Texas Senate.
Despite all this, SB5 fails — for now
Moments before 3:00 A.M., Lt. Governor David Dewhurst admitted defeated. Speaking to the press, he stated:
Members, the constitutional time for the first called session for the 83rd Legislature has expired. Senate Bill 5 cannot be signed in the presence of the Senate at this time and therefore cannot be enrolled. It’s been fun, but, uh, see you soon. This is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen in my life. An unruly mob using Occupy Wall Street tactics has tried all day to derail legislation that has been intended to protect the lives and the safety of women and babies. SB5 passed 19-10 but with all the ruckus and noise going on I couldn’t adjourn sine die pending completion of administrative duties. And right now I cannot sign the ? bill. So I’m very frustrated.
“Unruly mob using Occupy Wall Street tactics” – that’s what Dewhurst thinks of women exercising their right to free speech. But altering official congressional records? That’s completely permissible.
Edited and published by WP
