Story highlights James C. Moore: Texas has deep roots when it comes to political shenanigans, but this legislative session may have broken new ground

James C. Moore reported from the Texas legislature for 22 years, and is a best-selling author and business consultant. He writes a weekly political newsletter, "Texas to the World." The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) In Texas, we seem to like everything -- even our political sins -- to be bigger.

After concluding a legislative session that started as contentious and ended with allegations of death threats made on the House floor, Texans -- who are already accustomed to expecting little more from their legislators than decent entertainment -- are left wondering if our dope opera has become more than just tragicomic.

James C. Moore

I reported on the Texas legislature for over 20 years, and to the rest of the world I say: please forgive us our enumerated sins against democracy -- specifically, this latest round of bad legislation, and rank, political cowardice, which are certain to lead to legal challenges. First, there is Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's pet law on sanctuary cities, which is like Arizona's "show me your papers" measure that the federal high court put asunder.

Emotions, however, won't wait for legal filings. Abbott signed the measure into law on Facebook Live. He was avoiding reporters, and even police officers, who overwhelmingly rejected the notion that they might end up in jail for refusing to perform what amounts to racial profiling.

As the Texas legislature was wrapping up, protestors in the gallery were chanting their opposition to the law. A Republican state representative, Matt Rinaldi, said he called Immigration and Customs Enforcement to come arrest them as illegal immigrants.