Two Houston-area Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Al Green, were given citations and released for blocking traffic Tuesday during a voting rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a spokesperson for Green.
In a video posted to Twitter, Green can be seen singing “We Shall Overcome” in the middle of a street beside state Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City. An officer then places a green band around the congressman’s wrist, and walks him onto the sidewalk.
As the video ends, Reynolds can be seen holding his hands out as another officer approaches.
“I stand on the shoulders of giants who came before me that made tremendous sacrifices to end Jim Crow laws that disenfranchised blacks and Hispanics from voting,” Reynolds said in a statement.
Reynolds and dozens of other Democratic members of the Texas Legislature have been in Washington D.C. for three weeks after they left the state to block GOP-backed voting legislation, which critics have called voter suppression.
The law would ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting, make mail-in voting more difficult, and give partisan poll watchers more authority at voting sites.
The Texas lawmakers have urged Congress to pass federal legislation, such as the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, in an effort to overrule proposed voting restrictions in Texas.
Green is the second Houston member of Congress to face legal repurcussions for civil disobedience in the past week. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee was arrested Thursday in front of the Hart Senate Office Building, where she was raising awareness for voting rights and protesting the proposed Texas GOP voting restrictions.