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  • American History

    QUORUM QUACKERY

    Aug 24, 2021 4 minutes
    BY RICHARD BROOKHISER

    On May 30, the tail end of the Texas legislature’s session, Democrats in that state’s House of Representatives blocked passage of a bill that, they charged, would trample voting rights; the measure’s Republican sponsors claimed their proposal would institute necessary reforms. The Democratic solons prevailed not by voting the bête noir bill down—Democrats were not numerous enough in that chamber to pull that off—but by vamoosing, thereby depriving the House of the necessary quorum.

    A quorum is the minimum number of qualified persons who must be present at a meeting in order to conduct business. Quorums in political bodies are a good government measure, keeping tiny minorities from ramming through stealth legislation.

    The Constitution sets the quorums for the

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