SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

The Supreme Court has failed to reach a decision in President Barack Obama’s most prominent effort to reform immigration policy, which would have provided a path to gaining legal status for up to 4.5 million immigrants and protect them from deportation.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), who is sponsoring the ACCESS (ADA Compliance for Customer Entry to Stores and Services) Act, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitution and Civil Justice today on behalf of the bill he says will help stop plaintiffs’ lawyers from “trying to enrich themselves on the backs of the disabled.”

NEW ORLEANS – An Alabama couple is denying accusations that they defrauded the Deepwater Horizon claims program and insist they cannot repay $1.6 million awarded to them through the program because the money went to pay off a judgment against them.

Attorneys for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an appeal on New Year’s Eve, challenging a judge’s decision that the criminal case against him should proceed.

AUSTIN -- A Texas plaintiff has decided to appeal a ruling by a Texas appellate court affirming the decision that the state’s Commission for Lawyer Discipline is not required to disclose recommendations to complainants who file grievances against Texas attorneys.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion in response to a query on the authority of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) to participate in the Uptown Houston Transit Project. Paxton’s Dec. 14 letter to Senator Nichols addressed the legality of METRO participating in the Uptown Houston Transit Project, also known as the Post Oak Boulevard Dedicated Bus Lanes Project, or “Project,” based on METRO’s 2003 contract with voters. In the letter, Paxton concluded that

Citizens of Texas have reacted to the Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz’s announcement of the State Refugee Security Act with both criticism and praise. “How DARE you think you speak for me.

A Houston woman has filed a complaint against her former employer alleging she was discriminated against based on her race, gender, age and religion, and wrongfully terminated. Madeline Kirksey claims that she was terminated from the Children’s Lighthouse Learning Centers on Nov.3 after she refused to call a 6-year-old transgender student by their new name, and filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Nov.10. “This is not about being anti-transgender,” her a

Wilson Elser has expanded their offices in Texas.

Bexar County - Prostitution charges have been filed against a San Antonia attorney by several women claiming he coerced them into having sex with him in exchange for legal representation. Mark Benavides, who was running for judge in the 175th District Court at the time of his arrest, was arrested on Nov. 17 and charged with compelling prostitution, a second-degree felony.

In a new opinion about the legality of stickers on police vehicles that read “In God We Trust”, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reassured worried state legislators that the stickers are legal, should not be removed, and that the sticker policy will easily survive any court challenge to force their removal.

A Texas state lawmaker faces up to a year in jail after being convicted of five counts of misdemeanor barratry for the illegal solicitation of law clients. State Representative Ron Reynolds, a Missouri City Democrat, was prosecuted in Montgomery County along with eight other Houston-area attorneys on barratry charges, also referred to as “ambulance chasing”.