Judge Moyes, Brah....., You Plumb Forget You In Texas?!?!?!

dallasnews |  The fast-moving sequence of events that sprang her from jail, though, left some local lawyers and state Democrats distressed over state GOP leaders’ hasty back-pedaling from public health orders on the novel coronavirus.

Critics from the legal profession and Texas’ minority political party accused Abbott and other top Texas Republican politicians of advocating selective enforcement that aided a white business owner from Far North Dallas – all the while, setting a bad precedent.

“Greg Abbott dangles political red meat for his base while ignoring his own established guidelines and executive orders,” said Manny Garcia, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party.

“Abbott wants Texans to focus on the trivial,” to divert attention from deaths from COVID-19, Garcia said in a written statement.

U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Terrell, though, tweeted, “Great move by Governor @GregAbbott_TX.”

Abbott spokesman John Wittman declined to comment on criticism of the Republican governor’s intervention.

In Washington, President Donald Trump attributed Luther’s release to Abbott -- though it was her lawyer’s victory in obtaining an emergency order from the state Supreme Court, not Abbott’s action, that did the trick.

Abbott, during a White House visit, was happy to take credit.

“She is free today,” Abbott said, explaining the executive order he issued earlier in the day “saying that in the state of Texas, no one can be put behind bars because they’re not following an executive order. So that includes the woman.”

“Good,” said Trump, adding, "I was watching the salon owner and she looked so great, so 

professional, so good. And she was talking about her children. She has to feed her children.”

The day began with Luther in jail and Abbott, who’d criticized her jailing on Wednesday, tweaking his coronavirus orders to prohibit confinement -- a punishment he’d stressed in all his stay-at-home and closure orders in March and last month.

Abbott announced he was eliminating confinement as a punishment for violating the emergency orders over COVID-19, and said they would apply retroactively.

That meant Luther should be freed from the Dallas County Jail before her week-long sentence was completed, if Abbott’s latest tweak is “correctly applied,” he said in a news release.