Paxton files nearly a dozen lawsuits over past month

AUSTIN, Texas — The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, praised a judge’s decision to deem parts of a 2021 Texas elections law unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez said wording that made it a felony to be compensated for helping voters with their mail-in ballots was too vague. 

“It would criminalize almost every activity that was being undertaken by LULAC volunteers to help people, voters with their vote, to get the vote out,” said Gloria Leal, general counsel for LULAC. 

In late August, Paxton authorized multiple home raids of LULAC volunteers based on the law. He said the ruling is deeply troubling and “risks undermining public trust in our political process.” LULAC officials hope the ruling will put an end to what they say is the targeting of Latino voters in Texas. But they expect an appeal from the AG, who vowed to do so.

“The fight will continue because this was just a ruling on one issue,” said Leal. 

The judgment also marks the second loss in a week for Paxton. The Texas Supreme Court sided with the City of Dallas in Paxton’s lawsuit to stop the State Fair of Texas from enacting its gun ban policy. 

Paxton reacted by stating, “While Texas clearly prohibits this type of gun ban, I will be working with the Legislature this session to protect law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights on public property.” 

Including the lawsuit against the City of Dallas, Paxton has filed 10 lawsuits since the end of August. 

“It’s not typical, but it speaks to the increasing partisan divisions and the kind of hard ideological edge that Paxton has brought to the attorney general position,” said Matthew Wilson, a professor of political sciences at Southern Methodist University. 

Four of Paxton’s lawsuits are against the Biden administration while six are against local governments. Those includes a lawsuit against Harris County over a program to give low-income residents $500 a month. He sued Bexar County and Travis County over voter registration efforts and targeted the City of Austin for using tax dollars to help women access out-of-state abortions.

Paxton also sued Travis County on Monday for alleged violations of the Texas Open Meetings Act.

“Texas state government is dominated by Republicans, but the biggest cities in Texas are all controlled by Democrats,” said Wilson.  

The ACLU of Texas says it sees a negative trend from the attorney general’s actions with just five weeks to the general election.

“Attempting to prevent people from voting, to remove them from voter rolls, and also just to make people feel uncomfortable exercising their right to vote and instilling a sense of fear for eligible voters,” said Ashley Harris, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas.

But voters may be none the wiser. 

“This is much more an attempt to, if anything, scare the cities,” said Wilson.