How can deporting someone to a strange country -- where they've never lived & don't know the language -- not be "cruel &

[Ms. Toad]

22. That would vary depending on state law. In most states it would be false imprisonment.

And there are two forms of false imprisonment - civil and criminal. Generally, criminal false imprisonment requires worse behavior.

To start with, while they have the authority under the Texas constitution to compel her attendance if she is absent. At the time she was sleeping in the capitol, there was no business being conducted for which she was required to be present. Therefore the state has no right to restrict her movements to compel attendance until a session at which her attendance is required materializes.

But false imprisonment isn't just physically restraining movement. It includes, in most states, giving someone a choice to leave only if they accept conditions which are the equivalent of confinement, or are which are coercive or intimidating. Whether the choice she was given rises to the level of false imprisonment will be a matter of state law. It likely meets the definition of at least the tort of false imprisonment (it would, under the generic tort law I taught - but each state gets to make its own laws). Whether she can convince a Texas jury of that is another question.