Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the

Attorney General of Texas The Texas attorney general is the chief legal officer
of the

since January 2015. Paxton has described himself as a

Tea Party A tea party is a social gathering event held in the afternoon. For centuries, many societies have cherished drinking tea with a company at noon. Tea parties are considered for formal business meetings, social celebrations or just as an afternoon ...

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

. Paxton was re-elected to a third term as Attorney General on November 8, 2022. In his 2022 run, he faced a Republican primary opponent on May 24,

George P. Bush George Prescott Bush (born April 24, 1976) is an American politician and attorney who served as the commissioner of the Texas General Land Office from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, Bush unsuccessfully campaigned for the party's ...

, whom he defeated 68% to 32%, thus winning his party's nomination to advance to the

2022 Texas Attorney General election The 2022 Texas Attorney General election will take place on November 8, 2022, to elect the Attorney General of Texas. Incumbent Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is not term-limited as Texas does not prescribe term limits for state-wide elec ...

. He previously served as

Texas State Senator The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximate ...

for the 8th district and the Texas State Representative for the 70th district. Paxton has been under indictment since 2015 on state

securities fraud Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information, frequently resulting in los ...

charges relating to activities prior to taking office. He has pleaded not guilty. As of 2022, he is not standing trial. In October 2020, several high-level assistants in Paxton's office accused him of "

bribery Bribery is the Offer and acceptance, offering, Gift, giving, Offer and acceptance, receiving, or Solicitation, soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With reg ...

abuse of office Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

and other crimes". After Joe Biden won the 2020 U.S. presidential election and

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

refused to concede while making false claims of election fraud, Paxton aided Trump in his efforts to overturn the result, from filing the unsuccessful '' Texas v. Pennsylvania'' case in the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

to speaking at the rally Trump held on January 6, 2021, that immediately preceded the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.Trump thought courts were key to winning. Judges disagreed
''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

'', Coleen Long and Ed White, December 8, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2020.

Background

Paxton was born on

Minot Air Force Base Minot Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force installation in Ward County, North Dakota, north of the city of Minot via U.S. Route 83. In the 2020 census, the base was counted as a CDP with a total population of 5,017, down from 5,521 i ...

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

where his father was stationed while in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. His parents and their three children lived in a trailer, often without air conditioning, parked outside wherever his father was temporarily stationed. At various times, they lived in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. A lifelong football fan, Paxton carried a jersey autographed by

Bill Bates William Frederick Bates (born June 6, 1961) is a former American football safety who played for fifteen seasons in the National Football League, all of which were spent with the Dallas Cowboys. A fan favorite, he was a Pro Bowl selection in ...

, formerly of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

. Bates later was named Paxton's campaign treasurer.Andrea Zelinski, "Paxton's career, life marked by beating barriers", ''

San Antonio Express-News The ''San Antonio Express-News'' is a daily newspaper in San Antonio, Texas. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation and has offices in San Antonio and Austin, Texas. The ''Express-News'' is the third largest newspaper in the state of Texas, with ...

'', December 24, 2016, pp, 1, A8, accessdate=December 27, 2016 At the age of twelve, Paxton nearly lost an eye in a game of

hide-and-seek Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chose ...

; a misdiagnosis led to long-term problems with his vision. As a result, his good eye is green; his damaged one, brown and droopy. He further injured his eye while in college. Paxton received a psychology degree in 1985 and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in 1986, both from

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

, where he was elected president of the student government. Paxton then worked for two years as a management consultant before returning to school in 1988. In 1991, he received a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

. Paxton worked at Strasburger & Price, L.L.P. from 1991 to 1995, and J.C. Penney Company, Inc. from 1995 to 2002.

Texas legislature

House of Representatives (2003–2013)

In 2002, Paxton ran in the Republican primary for the Texas House in District 70. He captured 39.45% of the vote and moved into a runoff with Bill Vitz, whom he then defeated with 64% of the vote. He went on to face Fred Lusk (D) and Robert Worthington ( L) for the newly redistricted open seat. On November 4, 2002, Paxton won with 28,012 votes to Lusk's 7,074 votes and Worthington's 600 votes. Paxton won re-election against Democrat Martin Woodward in 2004. Paxton captured 76% of the vote, or 58,520 votes compared to 18,451 votes for Woodward. Paxton won re-election in 2006, defeating Rick Koster (D) and Robert Virasin (L). Paxton received 30,062 votes to Koster's 12,265 votes and Virasin's 1,222 votes. Paxton won re-election by again defeating Robert Virasin (L), 73,450 to 11,751 votes. Paxton ran unopposed for re-election in 2010. After getting re-elected, Paxton ran for

Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the Texas House of Representatives. The Speaker's main duties are to conduct meetings of the House, appoint committees, and enforce the Rules of the House. The current s ...

against

Joe Straus Joseph Richard Straus III (born September 1, 1959) is an American politician who served as the Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 2009 to 2019. A Republican, he represented District 121, which comprises northeastern Bexar County, ...

of District 121 in

Bexar County Bexar County ( or ; es, Béxar ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in South Texas and its county seat is San Antonio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,009,324. Bexar County is included in the San Antonio–New Bra ...

and fellow Republican

Warren Chisum Warren D. Chisum (born July 4, 1938) is an American politician who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1989 to 2013. Legislative career Chisum started his political career as a Democrat, but he party switched to the Republican Par ...

of District 88 in

Pampa, Texas Pampa (from the Quechua: ''pampa'', meaning "plain") is a city in Gray County, Texas, United States. Its population was 16,867 as of the 2020 census. Pampa is the county seat of Gray County and is the principal city of the Pampa micropolitan ...

. Paxton said that if elected speaker, he would take "bold action in defense of our conservative values." Sensing certain defeat, Paxton pulled out of the Speaker's race before the vote. Paxton was endorsed by ''HuckPAC'', the official political action committee of

Mike Huckabee Michael Dale Huckabee (born August 24, 1955) is an American politician, Baptist minister, and political commentator who served as the 44th governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate for the Republican Party presidential nomina ...

, and was endorsed by the

National Rifle Association The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...

. Straus was elected to his second term as Speaker and was re-elected in 2013, 2015, and 2017.

Texas State Senate (2013–2015)

Paxton was in the

Texas State Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...

from 2013 until January 2015 when his term as Attorney General began.

Attorney General elections

2014 election

Paxton became a candidate for

Texas attorney general The Texas attorney general is the chief legal officer
of the

when the incumbent

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and former jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 50th Tex ...

decided to run for

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

to succeed the retiring

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 and as the 47th governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015. Perry also ran unsuccessfully for the Republica ...

. Paxton led a three-candidate field in the Republican

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

held on March 4, 2014, polling 566,114 votes (44.4%). State Representative

Dan Branch Dan H. Branch (born March 5, 1958) is an American politician who served as the Texas State Representative for the 108th district from 2003 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he represented part of Dallas.Dallas County Dallas County may refer to: Places in the USA: * Dallas County, Alabama, founded in 1818, the first county in the United States by that name * Dallas County, Arkansas * Dallas County, Iowa * Dallas County, Missouri * Dallas County, Texas, the nin ...

received 426,595 votes (33.5 percent). Eliminated in the primary was

Texas Railroad Commission The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC; also sometimes called the Texas Railroad Commission, TRC) is the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and su ...

Barry Smitherman Barry Thomas Smitherman (born September 13, 1957) is an American lawyer who served as a member and chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission from 2011 to 2015. A Republican, he was appointed to the commission on July 8, 2011 by then Governor R ...

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, who polled the remaining 281,064 (22.1 percent). Paxton faced Dan Branch in the

runoff election The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resul ...

on May 27, 2014, and won with 465,395 votes (63.63 percent). Branch received 265,963 votes (36.36 percent). In the November 4, 2014,

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, Paxton defeated his Democratic opponent, an attorney from Houston named Sam Houston.Philip Balli, "Two vie for state AG post", ''

Laredo Morning Times The ''Laredo Morning Times'' is a daily newspaper publication based in Laredo, Texas, USA. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and busin ...

'', October 16, 2014, p. 3A Paxton took office on January 5, 2015. Paxton's campaign raised $945,000 in the first half of 2016, leaving Paxton with just under $3 million in his campaign account for a potential 2018 re-election bid. Paxton's wife, Angela Paxton, his closest political advisor, often opens up his events with a musical performance. She calls her husband "a very competitive person". Paxton won the attorney general's election without the endorsement of a single Texas

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

. In 2018, Angela Paxton won the District 8 seat in the Texas Senate.

2018 election

In 2018, Paxton ran unopposed for re-election in the Republican primary. Having received the endorsement of

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

, Paxton won a second term as attorney general in the

on November 6, 2018, narrowly defeating Democratic nominee Justin Nelson, a lawyer, and

Libertarian Party Active parties by country Defunct parties by country Organizations associated with Libertarian parties See also * Liberal parties by country * List of libertarian organizations * Lists of political parties Lists of political part ...

nominee Michael Ray Harris by a margin of 4,173,538 (50.6 percent) to 3,874,096 (47 percent) and Harris receiving 2.4%.Election Returns. Texas Secretary of State (November 6, 2018). Retrieved on November 10, 2018. Justin Nelson's campaign ad for attorney general included surveillance video from the Collin County courthouse in 2012, showing Paxton taking a Montblanc pen worth $1,000, which had been accidentally left behind at a metal detector by fellow lawyer Joe Joplin. The pen was later returned "when the error was realized", said a spokesman for Paxton.

2022 election

The 2022 Texas Attorney General election will take place on November 8, 2022, to elect the Attorney General of Texas. Paxton advanced to the November 8 general election after winning primary contests on March 1 and May 24.

Attorney General of Texas (2015–present)

Abortion

In 2022, Paxton was sued by Fund Texas Choice, a non-profit organization aiming to prevent Paxton from prosecuting people who assist Texans to receive out-of-state abortions. In September 2022, a

process server Service of process is the procedure by which a party to a lawsuit gives an appropriate notice of initial legal action to another party (such as a defendant), court, or administrative body in an effort to exercise jurisdiction over that person ...

alleged in an affidavit for the court that when he attempted to serve a subpoena to Paxton at his home, he saw Paxton coming to the door but turning back; Paxton's wife answered the door saying Paxton was on the phone, with the process server stating that he had important legal documents for Paxton; Paxton left the house an hour later but ran back into the house when the process server called his name; minutes later Paxton ran out of the house and left in a truck driven by his wife, ignoring the process server stating his intentions. Paxton responded claiming that the process server "yelled unintelligibly, and charged toward me. I perceived this person to be a threat", while further stating that the process server "is lucky this situation did not escalate further or necessitate force".

Affordable Care Act

Paxton initiated a lawsuit seeking to have the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) ruled unconstitutional in its entirety.

COVID-19 pandemic

In 2020, during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Paxton threatened to file lawsuits against local governments unless they rescinded stay-at-home orders and rescinded rules regarding the use of face masks to combat the spread of coronavirus. The city of Austin encouraged restaurants to keep logs of contact information, so as to as to ensure

contact tracing In public health, contact tracing is the process of identifying persons who may have been exposed to an infected person ("contacts") and subsequent collection of further data to assess transmission. By tracing the contacts of infected individua ...

in the event of an outbreak; Paxton described this as "Orwellian." Paxton sued the city of Austin again in December 2020 when the city implemented restrictions preventing indoor dining and drinking on New Years weekend amid surging COVID-19 cases. In March 2021, Paxton filed a lawsuit against Austin as well as Travis County, this time for the city and county continuing their local mask wearing requirements after Governor Abbott had signed an order ending the statewide mask-wearing mandate.

Gerrymandering

Paxton defended Texas in a federal lawsuit involving allegations that Texas's congressional districts were

gerrymandered In representative democracies, gerrymandering (, originally ) is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The m ...

. In 2017, a

three-judge panel A judicial panel is a set of judges who sit together to hear a cause of action, most frequently an appeal from a ruling of a trial court judge. Panels are used in contrast to single-judge appeals, and hearings, which involves all of the judges of ...

of a U.S. federal court based in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

ruled that the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature drew congressional-district to discriminate against minority voters, and ordered the redrawing of Texas's 35th and 27th congressional districts. Paxton appealed the ruling, contending that the previous maps were lawful, and vowed to "aggressively defend the maps on all fronts"; U.S. Representative

Lloyd Doggett Lloyd Alton Doggett II (born October 6, 1946) is an American attorney and politician who is a U.S. representative from Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, he has represented a district based in Austin since 1995, currently numbered as Texa ...

criticized the appeal as a "desperate, highly questionable Paxton-Abbott maneuver" coming "after yet another ruling against the state of Texas for intentional discrimination". Texas won on appeal when in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove that state Republicans acted in bad faith and engaged in intentional discrimination with respect to the 27th and 35th congressional districts.

Human trafficking

Paxton created a human trafficking unit in the AG office in 2015. In 2019, he convinced Texas lawmakers to more than quadruple the human trafficking unit’s annual funding. The year after, the unit did not secure a single human trafficking conviction and only four in 2020.

Immigration

In 2018, Paxton falsely claimed that undocumented immigrants had committed over 600,000 crimes since 2011 in Texas. ''

PolitiFact PolitiFact.com is an American nonprofit project operated by the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, with offices there and in Washington, D.C. It began in 2007 as a project of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (then the ''St. Petersburg Times'' ...

'' said that it had debunked the numbers before, and that the numbers exceed the state's estimates by more than 400%.

Obama executive orders

Paxton led a coalition of twenty-six states challenging President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) executive action, which granted deferred action status to certain

undocumented immigrants Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...

who had lived in the United States since 2010 and had children who were

American citizens Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

lawful permanent residents Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with suc ...

. Paxton argued that the president should not be allowed to "unilaterally rewrite congressional laws and circumvent the people's representatives." The Supreme Court heard the case, ''

United States v. Texas ''United States v. Texas'' may refer to the following United States Supreme Court cases: * ''United States v. Texas'' (2016), 579 U.S. ___ (2016), a case in which the Court considered the legality of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans p ...

'', and issued a split 4-4 ruling in the case in June 2016. Because of the split ruling, a 2015 lower-court ruling invalidating Obama's plan was left in place. In July 2017, Paxton led a group of Republican Attorneys General and Idaho Governor

Butch Otter Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter (born May 3, 1942) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 32nd governor of Idaho from 2007 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2006, and reelected in 2010, and 2014. Otter ...

in threatening the Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, colloquially referred to as DACA, is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive ...

policy that had been put into place by president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

, although never implemented in Texas because of legal action on behalf of the state. The other Attorneys General who joined in making the threats to Trump included Steve Marshall of Alabama,

Leslie Rutledge Leslie Carol Rutledge (born June 9, 1976) is an American attorney and politician from the state of Arkansas, served as the 56th attorney general of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023. She is the 21st lieutenant governor of Arkansas, since 2023. Rutledge ...

of Arkansas,

Lawrence Wasden Lawrence Garth Wasden is an American attorney and politician who served as the Idaho Attorney General from 2003 to 2023. First elected in 2002, he was the longest-serving attorney general in Idaho history. Wasden was re-elected four more times be ...

of Idaho,

Derek Schmidt Derek Larkin Schmidt (born January 23, 1968) is an American lawyer and politician who has been the Kansas Attorney General since 2011. A Republican, Schmidt was first elected to office serving in the Kansas Senate, where he represented the 15th ...

of Kansas,

Jeff Landry Jeffrey Martin Landry (born December 23, 1970) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Attorney General of Louisiana. He defeated Republican incumbent Buddy Caldwell in a runoff election held on November 21, 2015, and took office on J ...

of Louisiana, Doug Peterson of Nebraska, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and

Patrick Morrisey Patrick James Morrisey (born December 21, 1967) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 34th Attorney General of West Virginia since 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party. Morrisey was elected Attorney General of West Vi ...

of West Virginia.

Trump executive orders

In 2017, Paxton voiced support for the application of

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

to obtain

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

along the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

in Texas for construction of the border wall advocated by President

as a means to curtail illegal immigration. Paxton said that private landowners must receive a fair price when property is taken for the pending construction. He said that the wall serves "a public purpose providing safety to people not only along the border, but to the entire nation. ... I want people to be treated fairly, so they shouldn't just have their land taken from them," but there must be just compensation. In 2017, Paxton joined thirteen other state attorneys general in filing a friend-of-the-court briefs in defense of both Trump's

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and second executive orders on travel and immigration primarily from majority-Muslim countries (informally referred to as the "Muslim ban"). In filings in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the

, Paxton argued that the order—which places a 90-day ban on the issuance of visas to traveled from six designated majority-Muslim countries, imposes a 120-day halt on the admission of refugees to the U.S., and caps annual refugee admissions to 50,000 people—is constitutionally and legally valid. In May 2017, Paxton filed a preemptive lawsuit designed to ascertain the constitutionality of the new Texas law imposing penalties on

sanctuary cities Sanctuary city (; ) refers to municipal jurisdictions, typically in North America, that limit their cooperation with the national government's effort to enforce immigration law. Leaders of sanctuary cities say they want to reduce fear of deport ...

, known as SB 4, signed into law by Governor

. The law imposes penalties on local officials who place restrictions on their police forces or other agencies' cooperation with immigration enforcement, and requires county jails to honor requests from

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

to hold detainees suspected of being eligible for deportation. The suit asked the

United States District Court for the Western District of Texas The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas (in case citations, W.D. Tex.) is a federal district court. The court convenes in San Antonio with divisions in Austin, Del Rio, El Paso, Midland, Pecos, and Waco. It has juri ...

to clarify whether the law is at odds with the Fourth and Fourteenth constitutional amendments or is not in conflict with some other federal law. Paxton said that the measure "is constitutional, lawful and a vital step in securing our borders." Among those opposed to the measure are the police chiefs and sheriffs of some of the largest jurisdictions in Texas. Critics call the ban legalization of discrimination against minorities, and suits against the legislation are expected to be filed. Although initially key aspects of the law were enjoined by the court, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld nearly all of it on appeal, except for a provision that interfered with the

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

right to freedom of expression on the subject by local officials.

Environment

Challenge to the Clean Power Plan

Paxton has mounted a legal challenge to the

Clean Power Plan The Clean Power Plan was an Obama administration policy aimed at combating anthropogenic climate change (global warming) that was first proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2014. The final version of the plan was unveil ...

, which is President Obama's "state-by-state effort to fight climate change by shifting away from coal power to cleaner-burning natural gas and renewable resources." Paxton has said that the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

(EPA) is trying to "force Texas to change how we regulate energy production" through an "unprecedented expansion of federal authority." The Clean Power Plan would require Texas to cut an annual average of 51 million tons of emissions, down 21 percent from 2012 levels. Paxton says the required reductions would cost the state jobs, push electricity costs too high, and threaten reliability on the electrical grid. Paxton says there is no evidence that the plan will mitigate climate change, directly contradicting studies by the EPA that have shown the regulation will reduce carbon pollution by 870 million tons in 2030. He further asserts that the EPA lacks the statutory authority to write the state's policies.

ExxonMobil litigation

In 2016, Paxton was one of eleven Republican state attorneys general who sided with ExxonMobil in the company's suit to block a

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

probe by the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

.Andrea Zelinski
Paxton again sides with Exxon Mobil in climate change probe: 11 attorneys general suing to block probe by Massachusetts
, ''Houston Chronicle'' (September 9, 2016). Paxton and the other state AGs filed an ''

amicus curiae An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...

'' brief, contending that

Massachusetts Attorney General The Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected constitutionally defined executive officer of the Massachusetts Government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The officeholder ...

Maura Healey Maura Tracy Healey (born February 8, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the Massachusetts Attorney General since January 2015. She is the governor-elect of Massachusetts, having won the 2022 Massachusetts gubernatorial electi ...

used her office to "tip the scales on a public policy debate, undermine the first Amendment and abuse the office's subpoena power." Healey had launched a probe of

ExxonMobil ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...

's historical marketing and sale of fossil fuel products, requiring the company to produce 40 years worth of documents regarding fossil fuel products and securities. Healey said the documents would prove that ExxonMobil "knew about the risks of climate change decades ago and fraudulently concealed that knowledge from the public." The amicus brief supported Exxon Mobil's motion for a preliminary injunction. Paxton questioned Healey's use of law-enforcement authority regarding the global warming controversy, which he called an "ongoing public policy debate of international importance." Paxton described Healey's attempts to obtain historical company records for a public policy debate as a threat to freedom of speech, stating: "The Constitution was written to protect citizens from government witch-hunts that are nothing more than an attempt to suppress speech on an issue of public importance, just because a government official happens to disagree with that particular viewpoint." The brief portrayed climate change as an issue that was still a matter of scientific debate, although in fact the scientific consensus is that the earth is warming and human activity is primarily responsible. U.S. Virgin Islands attorney general Claude Walker had also issued a subpoena for Exxon's records. Paxton issued a request to intervene in the case, stating: "What is Exxon Mobil's transgression? Holding a view about climate change that the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands disagrees with. This is about the criminalization of speech and thought." Walker dropped the subpoena in June 2016.

Labor lawsuits

Paxton sued the Obama administration over a new rule by the

United States Department of Labor The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...

which would make five million additional workers eligible for overtime pay. The new rule would mean workers earning up to an annual salary of $47,500 would become eligible for overtime pay when working more than 40 hours per week. Paxton has said the new regulations "may lead to disastrous consequences for our economy." Along with Texas, twenty other states have joined the lawsuit. Paxton is involved in a legal challenge to a rule by the

Department of Labor The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

which forces employers to report any "actions, conduct or communications" undertaken to "affect an employee's decisions regarding his or her representation or collective bargaining rights". Known as the "persuader rule", the new regulation went into effect in April 2016. Opponents of the rule say it will prevent employers from speaking on labor issues or seeking legal counsel. In June 2016, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against the rule. Paxton called the injunction "a victory for the preservation of the sanctity of attorney-client confidentiality".

LGBT rights

As Attorney General, Paxton appointed several social conservatives and opponents of

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

rights to positions in his department. In June 2015, after the issuance of the ''

Obergefell v. Hodges ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protect ...

'' decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, Paxton offered support for clerks who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. His statement said, "I will do everything I can from this office to be a public voice for those standing in defense of their rights." In 2016, Paxton led a coalition of thirteen states that sought an injunction to block a guidance letter issued by the Department of Education and Department of Justice that interpreted

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

to require public schools to allow

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

students to use restrooms that accorded with their

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

.John Wright
Paxton's Transgender Bathroom Lawsuit Goes to Court Friday
, ''Texas Observer'' (August 9, 2016). Paxton submitted court filings alleging the Obama administration had "conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment" and termed the directive a "gun to the head" that threatens the independence of school districts. In September 2016, Paxton and his wife had dinner with activist Amber Briggle and her family, including her

trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom * ''Trans'' (film ...

son. The states dropped the suit after the directive was revoked by President

. On February 18, 2022, Paxton issued a new interpretation of Texas law in a written opinion that characterized gender-affirming health care (such as hormone treatments and puberty blockers) for transgender youths as child abuse. Established medical practice allows for puberty blockers to be explored after initial signs of puberty, although evidence for their use is still evolving. On February 28, Amber Briggle was notified that the

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) is responsible for investigating charges of abuse, neglect or exploitation of children, elderly adults and adults with disabilities. Prior to its creation in 2004, the agency had been c ...

had opened an investigation into her family. On March 11, a

Texas District Court The Texas District Courts form part of the Texas judicial system and are the trial courts of general jurisdiction of Texas. As of January 2019, 472 district courts serve the state, each with a single judge, elected by partisan election to a four- ...

issued a temporary

injunction An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...

, which temporarily stopped state investigations into families who provide gender-affirming medical care for their children, and scheduled a trial for July 11, 2022. In June 2022, Paxton said he would defend state laws against '

sodomy Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sodo ...

' or same-sex sexual relationships if the Supreme Court precedent invalidating such laws, the ''

Lawrence v. Texas ''Lawrence v. Texas'', 539 U.S. 558 (2003), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that most sanctions of criminal punishment for consensual, adult non- procreative sexual activity (commonly referred to as so ...

'' decision, was overturned. On March 17, 2022, Paxton made a post on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

in which he referred to U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health

Rachel Levine Rachel Leland Levine (; born October 28, 1957) is an American pediatrician who has served as the United States assistant secretary for health since March 26, 2021. She is also a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service C ...

– a

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

— as a man. Twitter flagged the tweet for violating its conduct rules, but did not remove the post. The following day, Paxton tweeted a statement in which he again referred to Levine as a man, and stated that he was "exploring legal options" against Twitter. During that same month, according to a report by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', Paxton's office requested a list of citizens who had changed their gender on their driver's licenses, circumventing the accepted procedure of contacting DPS’ government relations and general counsel’s offices by instead directly contacting the driver license division staff. No reason was given for this request. In August, the data was provided to Paxton's office, despite that in November 2022, officials indicated the office had no such information.

Volkswagen, Apple, and MoneyGram lawsuits

In 2012, Paxton was part of a lawsuit by 33 state attorneys general against

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

, charging the company with violating antitrust laws by conspiring with publishers to artificially raise the prices of

electronic books An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alth ...

. Apple was ordered to pay $400 million to U.S. consumers who paid artificially-inflated prices for e-books, and $20 million to the states in reimbursement for legal costs. As part of a suit involving 44 states, in June 2016, it was announced that

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

would pay the state of Texas $50 million in relation to the

Volkswagen emissions scandal The Volkswagen emissions scandal, sometimes known as Dieselgate or Emissionsgate, began in September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Vol ...

. Paxton, and most other states, had sued the company in 2015 in connection with the automaker's admitted use of software that allowed its vehicles to circumvent emissions limits. Paxton is part of a 21-state lawsuit against the state of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

. The lawsuit alleges that

MoneyGram MoneyGram International, Inc. is an American cross-border Peer-to-peer, P2P payments and electronic funds transfer, money transfer company based in the United States with headquarters in Dallas, Dallas, Texas. It has an operations center in St. L ...

gave uncashed checks to the state of Delaware instead of the state where the money order or travelers check was bought. The case has gone directly to the U.S. Supreme Court because it is a dispute among states. Paxton said an audit showed that Delaware owed other states $150 million, and that Delaware unlawfully took possession of uncashed checks instead of sending the checks back to the states where the money orders were purchased. The state of Delaware disputes these claims.

Lawsuit over homestead tax exemptions

In 2015, the

Texas State Legislature The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful arm ...

passed a law implementing property tax reductions by increasing the homestead exemption to $25,000 and prohibiting localities from reducing or repealing any local option homestead exemption already on the books. After this law was passed, 21 school districts reduced or eliminated their local optional homestead exemptions. In 2016, Paxton intervened in a lawsuit challenging the practice of school districts reducing or repealing their local optional homestead exemptions.

Second Amendment lawsuits

In 2016, three

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

professors sued in an effort to ban concealed handguns from campus, blocking the state's campus carry law. Paxton called the lawsuit "frivolous" and moved to dismiss. The federal district court dismissed the suit in 2017, and the dismissal was upheld by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018. In 2016, Paxton sued the

City of Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

to allow license holders to openly carry handguns in Austin City Hall. Paxton prevailed, and the court decided not only that the city of Austin must allow such carry, but also ordered it to pay a fine to the state for each day it prevented investigators from the attorney general's office from carrying their firearms.

Voting rights

In March 2017, Paxton told ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...

'' that he was convinced that voter fraud exists in Texas, and claimed that local election officials in Texas were not on the lookout for detecting fraud. According to a July 11, 2021 ''The New York Times'', even though voter fraud is "very rare in the United States"—most cases are minor errors on the part of a voter, Paxton "made it a mission" as attorney general to lay voter-charge charges; According to a July 9, 2021 article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', " w prosecutors have pursued election-related crimes more than Paxton." By February 2017—as part of his "crusade" against voter fraud Paxton sought to investigate 2016 Texas voting records—such as access to individual voting history and application materials for voter registrations—to uncover potential voter fraud, for example, voting by non-citizens or in the name of the deceased. In February 2017, officials in

said there have been no major cases of voter fraud in

. However, the

reported that the top election official in Bexar County estimates that nearly six hundred

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...

s submitted by voters declined to present identification and should have been declined. Instead, the official said such voters should have been required to cast

provisional ballot In elections in the United States, a provisional ballot (called an affidavit ballot in New York) is used to record a vote when there are questions about a given voter's eligibility that must be resolved before the vote can count. The federal ...

s. AP projected that the overall number who cast improper affidavits as 13,500 in the largest Texas counties.

Fort Bend County Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded in 1837 and organized the next year. It is named for a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around the fort in early days. Th ...

's top elections official said that these cases are not voter fraud, noting that only those who were registered to vote qualified for an affidavit, and that "poll workers were trained to 'err on the side of letting people use the affidavit instead of denying them the chance to vote.'" According to a May 2, 2017

ProPublica ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...

article', there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas. In 2017, the ''Texas Tribune'' reported that, experts had said there was no reliable evidence of widespread voter fraud in the United States, and a Texas study of elections over a decade determined that there were about three cases of fraud for every one million votes in the state. In 2017, the ''

'' criticized the state's voter identification law, which Paxton seeks to have reinstated after it was struck down by

United States District Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christi, who found the measure to be a violation of the

Voting Rights Act The suffrage, Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of Federal government of the United States, federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President of the United ...

, and found that it was passed with the intent to discriminate against black and Hispanic voters. Paxton's office appealed the decision. Appeals continue in the case. By May 2017, the Office of the AG's "efforts to enact and enforce the strictest voter ID law in the nation were so plagued by delays, revisions, court interventions and inadequate education that the casting of ballots in the 2016 election was inevitably troubled."

Prioritizing voter-fraud prosecutions

Of the voter fraud cases that his office chose to pursue, 72% were people of color. Paxton had also filed charges against Hervis Rogers, a Black man who was working two jobs. Rogers had received media coverage as a "national hero" for waiting six hours in a line at Houston's

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...

Harris County, Texas Harris County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas; as of the 2020 census, the population was 4,731,145, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is Houston, ...

in order to vote in the March 2020 Democratic presidential primary election. A July 9, 2021 article in ''The Guardian'' said that Rogers was a symbol for Black Americans of "tenacity" in making his voice heard. Rogers had been convicted in 1995 for "burglary and intent to commit theft" and served nine years in prison. His 2004 parole expired in June 2020. In Texas it is illegal for a person to vote if they have been convicted of a felony until the completion of the sentence, probation and/or parole. Bail for Rogers was set at $100,000—an "extremely high bail amount"—which he could not afford. Hervis was not charged in

, county. a majority-minority community. Instead he was charged in the adjacent

Montgomery County, Texas Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county had a population of 620,443. The county seat is Conroe. The county was created by an act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas on December 14, 1 ...

, where only 4% of the population is Black, and was jailed until

The Bail Project The Bail Project is a 501 (c)(3) non profit organization aiming to pay bail for people who are not financially capable of doing so themselves. The Bail Project also provides pretrial services. The Bail Project was founded in 2017 by Robin Steinb ...

, a non-profit, posted his bail." If convicted he could be sentenced to 40 years in prison for the non-violent offense. It's not the first time that Paxton had indulged in "forum shopping." He tried to get a Harris County elections official indicted and tried for alleged interference with a poll watcher, attempting to obtain that indictment in Montgomery County. Paxton admitted to

KXAN-TV KXAN-TV (channel 36) is a television station in Austin, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Llano, Texas, Llano-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KBVO (TV), KBVO (channel 14); Nexstar also provide ...

that few people served time for voter fraud. The station found just 24 of 138 people convicted of voter fraud between 2004 and September 2020 spent time in jail.Ken Paxton's beefed-up 2020 voter fraud unit closed 16 minor cases, all in Harris County
''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

'', Taylor Goldenstein, December 22, 2020. Retrieved July 13, 2021. Paxton explained, "But I think the good thing about finding it, and doing a thorough job of investigation and prosecution, is at least you send the message to people that if you're going to do this, there is some risk that you’re going to end up in prison for committing voter fraud." Paxton's office spent almost double the time working on voter fraud cases in 2021 as it did in 2018. It recorded spending over 22,000 staff hours on the task, but resolved only 16 prosecutions, half as many as two years prior. All of the cases were in Harris County, lodged against voters who had provided inaccurate addresses on their voter registration forms. None of those defendants were sentenced to jail time. The costs of the 230 ongoing investigations and 360 prosecutions were formidable: The chief of election fraud is paid about $140,000, a second attorney received $97,000. Two other attorneys were each being paid about $85,000. Paxton's voter fraud investigation unit had a budget of $1.9 million to $2.2 million in 2021. By the end of the year, the office had closed only three cases of fraud.

Opposition to absentee voting expansion

In May 2020, Paxton opposed an expansion of absentee voting to voters who lack immunity to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. A state district judge ruled that such voters could apply for absentee ballots under a statutory provision that accommodates disabled individuals. After the ruling, Paxton publicly contradicted the district judge and subsequently persuaded the Texas Supreme Court to address the issue of eligibility in a separate case he filed directly in that court, while putting the appeal of the district court case on hold. During the 2020 election season, which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paxton sued Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, seeking to block him from sending applications for absentee ballots to the county's 2.4 million registered voters accompanied by instructions regarding eligibility as clarified by the Texas Supreme Court. Paxton lost in the trial court and in the intermediate court of appeals, but the Texas Supreme Court reversed and directed the trial court to enter an injunction against Hollins. The mail-vote promotion was part and parcel of Harris County's package of innovative measures to reduce the COVID-19 infection risk of in-person voting while maximizing opportunities for all voters to participate under pandemic conditions. The Republican Party of Texas opposed the expansion of voting by mail and other accommodations, and filed its own legal actions seeking to stop Hollins through the court system.

Challenge to 2020 presidential election results

Paxton's office spent more than 22,000 hours looking for voter fraud after the 2020 election, finding only 16 cases of false addresses on registration forms out of nearly 17 million registered voters. On December 8, 2020, Paxton sued the states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, where certified results showed President-elect Joe Biden the victor over President Donald Trump, alleging a variety of unconstitutional actions in their presidential balloting, arguments that had already been rejected in other courts. In '' Texas v. Pennsylvania'', Paxton asked the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

to invalidate the states' sixty-two electoral votes, allowing Trump to be declared the winner of a second presidential term. Because the suit was cast as a dispute between states, the Supreme Court had original jurisdiction, although it often declines to hear such suits. There is no evidence of widespread illegal voting in the election. Paxton's lawsuit included claims that had been tried unsuccessfully in other courts and shown to be false. Officials from the four states described Paxton's lawsuit as recycling false and disproven claims of irregularity. Trump and seventeen Republican state attorneys general filed motions to support the case, the merits of which were sharply criticized by legal experts and politicians. Election law expert

Rick Hasen Richard L. Hasen is an American legal scholar and law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is an expert in legislation, election law and campaign finance. Early life and education Hasen received his Bachelor of Arts with hi ...

described the lawsuit as "the dumbest case I've ever seen filed on an emergency basis at the Supreme Court." Republican Senator

Ben Sasse Benjamin Eric Sasse ( ; born February 22, 1972) is an American politician and academic administrator serving as the junior United States senator for Nebraska since 2015. He is a member of the Republican Party. Born in Plainview, Nebraska, Sa ...

opined that the situation of Paxton initiating the lawsuit "looks like a fella begging for a

pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the ju ...

filed a

PR stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...

", in reference to Paxton's own legal issues ( securities fraud charges and abuse of office allegations). Paxton has called the pardon speculation "an absurdly laughable conspiracy theory" and said the lawsuit is about election integrity. The case was quickly dismissed on December 11. Later it was revealed that the failed suit had been drafted by Lawyers for Trump, a group connected to the Trump campaign. Several other state attorneys general turned down the offer to file the suit.

Solicitor General of Texas The Solicitor General of Texas is the top appellate solicitor or lawyer for the U.S. state of Texas. It is an appointed position in the Office of the Texas Attorney General that focuses on the office's major appellate cases. The majority of th ...

Kyle D. Hawkins, who would ordinarily represent the state in cases before the Supreme Court, refused to let his name be attached to the suit. The Texas Attorney General hired Lawrence J. Joseph of Lawyers for Trump as special counsel for filing the suit. After the failure of his lawsuit, Paxton traveled to Washington to speak at a political rally for President Trump on January 6, 2021. In his speech, Paxton told the crowd "we will not quit fighting". Immediately following, the crowd of Trump supporters left the rally and stormed the United States Capitol building in a riot that led to the death of five people, including a

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

. In reaction to the violence and loss of life, Paxton falsely claimed that the rioters were liberal activists posing as Trump supporters. He was the only state attorney general to not condemn the insurrection. In early 2021, Paxton's office refused to provide his work emails and text messages he sent or received while in Washington on January 6, after several Texas news organizations requested them in accordance with the state's open records law. In January 2022, the

Travis County Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is na ...

district attorney gave Paxton four days to comply or face a lawsuit. In October 2021, Paxton falsely claimed that Biden "overthrew" Trump in the 2020 election.

Religion in schools

Paxton "has often criticized what he calls anti-Christian discrimination in Texas schools."Selk, Avi
The Texas AG sued to keep a Bible quote in school. Now he's troubled by Muslim prayers
, ''The Washington Post'' (March 19, 2017). In 2015, Paxton opposed an atheist group's legal action seeking a halt to the reading of religious prayers before school board meetings. In December 2016, Paxton gained attention after intervening in a dispute in

Killeen, Texas Killeen is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 153,095, making it the 19th-most populous city in Texas and the largest of the three principal cities of Bell County. It is the principal city ...

, in which a middle school principal told a nurse's aide to take down a six-foot poster in the school containing a quote from Christian scripture. Paxton sided with the aide, who won in court. In early 2017 Paxton objected to a Texas school's use of an empty classroom to allow its Muslim students to pray, issuing a press release that claimed that "the high school's prayer room is ... apparently excluding students of other faiths." School officials said that Paxton had never asked them about this assertion, and that the room was a spare room used by faculty and non-Muslim students as well as for multiple activities, from grading papers to Buddhist meditation. The

Frisco Independent School District Frisco Independent School District is a public school district based in Frisco, Texas, United States. The district covers portions of Denton and Collin counties, including portions of the cities of Frisco, Little Elm, Plano, and McKinney as ...

superintendent, in a letter sent in response to Paxton, called his press release "a publicity stunt by the ffice of Attorney Generalto politicize a nonissue."

Legal issues

State securities fraud felony indictment

On July 28, 2015, a state grand jury indicted Paxton on three criminal charges: two counts of securities fraud (a first-degree felony) and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators (a third-degree felony). Paxton's indictment marked the first such criminal indictment of a

Texas Attorney General The Texas attorney general is the chief legal officer
of the

in thirty-two years since Texas Attorney General

Jim Mattox James Albon Mattox (August 29, 1943 – November 20, 2008) was an American lawyer and politician who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives and two four-year terms as state attorney general, but lost high-profile race ...

was indicted for

in 1983. The complainants in the case are Joel Hochberg, a Florida businessman and Byron Cook, a former Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives. Paxton and Cook were former friends and roommates while serving together in the Texas House. Three

special prosecutor In the United States, a special counsel (formerly called special prosecutor or independent counsel) is a lawyer appointed to investigate, and potentially prosecute, a particular case of suspected wrongdoing for which a conflict of interest exis ...

s were trying the state's case. The state prosecution against Paxton grows out of Paxton selling shares of Servergy Inc., a technology company, to investors in 2011. Prosecutors allege that Paxton sold shares of Servergy to investors (raising $840,000) while failing to disclose that he was receiving compensation from the company in the form of 100,000 shares of stock in return. Paxton says the 100,000 shares of stock he received from Servergy's founder and CEO were a gift, and not a sales commission, and they were provided to Paxton long before the sales transactions occurred. On August 3, 2015, following the unsealing of the grand jury indictment, Paxton was arrested and booked. He pleaded not guilty, and has portrayed "the case against him as a political witch-hunt." Paxton and his supporters claim that the prosecution has its origin in a dispute among Texas Republicans, with conservatives like Paxton on one side and moderates like Cook on the other, and suggest that Cook's complaint, several years after the Servergy deal, was political payback. Paxton unsuccessfully sought to quash the indictments. This challenge was rejected by the trial judge, the Fifth Court of Appeals, and the Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas' criminal court of last resort. Paxton's trial has been delayed multiple times over side issues, such as the venue where the trial will take place and the amount of the special prosecutors' fees.Emma Platoff
Criminal case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will return to his native Collin County, judge rules
, ''Texas Tribune'' (June 25, 2020).Emma Platoff
Houston appeals court won't let Ken Paxton criminal trial move to Collin County, for now
''Texas Tribune'' (October 29, 2020). In March 2017, District Judge George Gallagher, a Republican from

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

, granted the prosecution's motion for a

change of venue A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread public ...

, moving the trial to Houston in Harris County. Gallagher also denied Paxton's motion to dismiss one of the charges against him because of issues which arose about the grand jury. In May 2017, the

Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas The Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas is one of the 14 Texas Courts of Appeals. It currently sits in Dallas, Texas. It has simultaneously both the smallest Court of Appeals' jurisdictional geographic size (only six counties, one of which is shared ...

agreed with Paxton that the transfer of Paxton's trial to Houston required assignment of the case to a new judge to replace Judge Gallagher and all orders issued by Judge Gallagher after the change of venue were voided. The current judge in the case is Robert Johnson of the 177th District Court in Harris County. Johnson was chosen at random to preside. In November 2018, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals invalidated the trial court's order approving of payments of attorneys' fees to the special prosecutors in the case, and directed the lower court to issue payments "in accordance with an approved fee schedule," siding with county commissioners in Paxton's home county of Collin County, who had rejected the prosecutors's invoice.Patrick Svitek & Emma Platoff
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules against prosecutors in Ken Paxton payment case
, ''Texas Tribune'' (November 21, 2018). The special prosecutors in the case have suggested that if they are not paid, they could withdraw from prosecution of Paxton. After the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to reconsider the motion, one of three prosecutors pursuing criminal charges against Paxton asked to step down from the case. Paxton filed a motion to move the case from Harris County to his native Collin County, in 2019. The trial court granted the motion, but in 2020, the 1st Court of Appeals in Houston blocked the case from being moved to Collin County pending further consideration of the matter. In May 2021, a panel of three justices ruled that the trial for Paxton's felony fraud charges should be moved to Collin County where Paxton lives instead of Harris County. The decision by the panel of three judges to move Paxton's trial back to Collin County was appealed by the prosecution in June. In September the appeals court denied the prosecution appeal. Prosecutors again filed another appeal this time with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. In March 2022, it was reported that the appeal had officially been put on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals case docket

Securities and Exchange Commission civil action

In 2016, the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

(SEC) filed a civil enforcement action against Paxton in the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas (in case citations, E.D. Tex.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Fifth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. ...

. The SEC's complaint specifically charged Paxton with violating various provisions of the

Securities Act of 1933 The Securities Act of 1933, also known as the 1933 Act, the Securities Act, the Truth in Securities Act, the Federal Securities Act, and the '33 Act, was enacted by the United States Congress on May 27, 1933, during the Great Depression and after ...

and various provisions (including

Rule 10b-5 SEC Rule 10b-5, codified at , is one of the most important rules targeting securities fraud promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, pursuant to its authority granted under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The rule ...

) of the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934 The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (also called the Exchange Act, '34 Act, or 1934 Act) (, codified at et seq.) is a law governing the secondary trading of securities (stocks, bonds, and debentures) in the United States of America. A landma ...

by defrauding the Servergy investors. Paxton denied the allegations.Martha Neil
SEC sues Texas AG Ken Paxton for securities fraud; his lawyer 'vehemently denies' claims
, ''ABA Journal'' (April 11, 2016).Chuck Lindell
SEC accuses Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton of fraud
, ''Austin American-Statesman'' (April 11, 2016). One of the defendants and Servergy itself reached a separate settlement with the SEC, agreeing to pay $260,000 in penalties. In October 2016, U.S. District Judge

Amos L. Mazzant III Amos Louis Mazzant III (born February 22, 1965) is a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and former United States magistrate judge of the same court. Bio ...

conditionally dismissed the complaint, finding the SEC had not alleged Paxton had any legal obligation to inform investors that he was receiving a commission, but gave the SEC two weeks to refile an amended complaint. The SEC refiled its securities fraud claims against Paxton, making the additional allegations that Paxton and Cook's investment club required all of its members to accept the same risks on all investments and that it specifically forbade members from making money off investments of other members. The SEC further alleged that Paxton did not properly disclose his Servergy ownership stake on his taxes and that he attempted to conceal the stake by at different times claiming it was his fee for legal services, that it was a gift, and that he had only received it after investing money. In March 2017, Mazzant dismissed the civil securities fraud case, ruling that Paxton "no plausible legal duty" to inform investors that he would earn a commission if they purchased stock in a technical company that Paxton represented. With the second dismissal of the case with prejudice, the SEC could not bring new action on the same claim against Paxton. The dismissal of the SEC case did not have a direct impact on the state criminal case, which remained pending. However, the burden of proof in criminal court is higher than in civil court.

Whistleblower allegations against Paxton

In October 2020, seven of Paxton's top aides published a letter to the office's director of human resources, accusing Paxton of improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other crimes, and said they had provided information to law enforcement and asked them to investigate.Dakin Andone & Chuck Johnston
Top aides to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton have accused him of bribery and abuse of office
, CNN (October 4, 2020). The letter was signed by First Assistant Attorney General

Jeff Mateer Jeffrey Carl Mateer is an American lawyer. From 2016 to 2020, he served as First Assistant Attorney General of Texas. In September 2017, he was nominated by President Donald Trump to become a United States district judge of the United States D ...

, and the deputy and deputy attorneys general overseeing the Office's divisions for criminal investigations, civil litigation, administration, and policy. Paxton denied misconduct and said he would not resign. By the end of the month, all seven whistleblowers had left the office: three resigned, two were fired, and two were put on leave. The

reported that the allegations involved Paxton illegally using his office to benefit real estate developer Nate Paul, who had donated $25,000 to Paxton's 2018 campaign. The Associated Press also reported that the allegations include the claim that Paxton had an extramarital affair with a woman, and that he had later advocated for that woman to be hired by Paul's company,

World Class World class is a superlative that can refer to: Names World class forms part (or all) of the following names: Sports and Competitions * World Class Championship Wrestling * World class manufacturing * FAI World Class * World Class Tag Te ...

. Paul has acknowledged employing the woman, but denied that he had done so on Paxton's behalf. In 2020, four of the former members of the Texas AG's Office sued the Office of the Attorney General, alleging that Paxton fired them for reporting misconduct to law enforcement, a form of illegal retaliation under the state's Whistleblower Act. In 2021, the district court denied Paxton's motion to dismiss the suit. Paxton's office appealed, claiming that the Whistleblower Act did not apply to allegations of misconduct by Paxton, as an elected executive-branch officer, and that as an elected official he must have the power to control his top lieutenants, who are high-level political appointees. In October 2021, the Texas Third Court of Appeals denied Paxton's bid to have the case dismissed and affirmed the trial court's order.

Ethics complaints pursuant to 2020 election challenges

In response to a complaint from Galveston Democrats that his challenges to the 2020 election were frivolous and unethical, a state disciplinary body ruled that a complaint against Paxton for professional misconduct could go forward. The complaint to the State Bar of Texas was initially dismissed by the Bar's chief disciplinary counsel, but was later revived by the Board of Disciplinary Appeals, and the State Bar launched an investigation into Paxton. Another ethics complaint alleging Paxton's election challenges were unethical and seeking sanctions or disbarment was filed by Lawyers Defending American Democracy. Among the signers of the LDAD complaint were four former presidents of the State Bar of Texas and a former chair of the Texas Supreme Court grievance oversight committee

Electoral history

Attorney General elections Texas Senate 8th district election Texas House 70th district elections

References

External links

Texas Attorney General website

Ken Paxton's website
* * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Paxton, Ken 1962 births 21st-century American politicians Activists from Texas Baylor University alumni Living people Republican Party members of the Texas House of Representatives People from McKinney, Texas People from Minot, North Dakota Tea Party movement activists Texas Attorneys General Texas lawyers Republican Party Texas state senators University of Virginia School of Law alumni