Civil litigator Owen Barcala took to social media on Monday afternoon to explain why Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) arrest warrant is toothless that targets Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to prevent a necessary quorum to vote on mid-decade redistricting.

Democrats bolted from the state over a GOP bid to maintain a Republican majority in Congress. The Republican Party narrowly controls the House, and polls show they could lose key seats in next year’s mid-term elections. If Texas redraws its lines to eliminate Democratic districts, it would bolster the GOP’s dwindling total.

“Before you see a hundred or so posts saying that Texas has issued arrest warrants for the absent Dem legislators, you should be aware that they are civil warrants issued by the House that are not effective outside the state,” wrote Barcala.

He noted that the only way that the state of Texas could cross state lines to arrest the Democrats is if they were charged with “treason, felony or other crime.”

Abbott issued a civil arrest warrant, rather than a criminal warrant.

“A criminal warrant could be enforced in another state through the extradition clause. A civil warrant cannot. So this doesn’t really change anything, and the same thing was done when Dems broke the quorum in 2003,” Barcala said.

Earlier reports revealed that Attorney General Ken Paxton was instructed to explore ways to charge them with bribery, which would allow him to issue a criminal warrant. Abbott could also use it to demand that the lawmakers be impeached or removed.

“To clarify, since some people are asking the same questions—yes, these are technically arrest warrants because if they’re in the state, they can be detained and dragged to the Capitol,” he added. “They are not *criminal* arrest warrants, which is what most people think when they a warrant for arrest was issued.”

“Honestly, I hope some Texas Ranger goes to Chicago to try to execute some kind of civil arrest. They’re going to end up locked in the Bean,” quipped Barcala.

He also noted that Abbott’s threat to expel and remove the lawmakers from office is even more of a flex than a threat.

“But when talking to Benny Johnson’s brain-addled audience, even [Abbott] admitted that it would require filing suit in 50 Dem districts and then having special elections. The new map has to be adopted by December,” said Barcala.

So, Abbott would need to file the charges, deal with the lead-up to the case, discovery, and other matters, win the trial, win the appeal, and hold a primary and general election all by December.