On July 5th I wrote that conservatives remembered what the left had done to Judge Robert Bork and believed Judge Brett Kavanaugh would be a just appointment to the seat Bork was denied. The extreme efforts to stop his nomination confirm that the left was determined to prevent that from happening. Of course, at the end of the day the ferocity of the opposition to this appointment illustrates the outsized power the court has assumed in our country. The fear of losing the power of the court as their vanguard, of the gavel being in the hand of others, explains the lefts willingness to “do anything” to defeat the nomination. Indeed, some even suggested Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley was not qualified to lead the committee because he is not a lawyer. The fact is Senator Grassley has as many hours in law school as Senator Feinstein, the ranking minority member.
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded on Sept. 24 to a request by Tarrant County’s Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson to clarify the legal disclosure obligations of her office under article 39.14 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Kenneth W. Starr, an attorney with a distinguished legal, academic and public service record, has joined the Lanier Law Firm in an Of Counsel position.
Governor Greg Abbott named Jeff Oldham as General Counsel to the Governor following the confirmation by the U.S. Senate of Andrew Oldham to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Jeff Oldham (no relation) previously worked as a private practice attorney at Bracewell LLP in Houston, TX.
DALLAS - The Law Offices of Joseph Malley has announced that the firm has been named a 2018 Elite Trial Lawyers finalist by The National Law Journal in the area of Privacy & Data Breach area of law.
Attorney General Ken Paxton said he’s confident that by the end of an expected weeklong trial that began in U.S. District Court today, lawyers from his office will firmly establish the constitutionality of a Texas law that provides new rules on the humane disposition of fetal remains.
Leading an 11-state coalition, Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit defending the federal government’s refusal to facilitate abortions for unlawfully-present minor aliens who were apprehended while attempting to enter the country.
As the President considers a new judge to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy he would do well to remember that the Kennedy seat was supposed to go to Judge Robert Bork, a good man who was unjustly attacked and precluded from sitting on the Supreme Court. Conservatives have long recognized Bork should have had that spot.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court recently released a court opinion to uphold the majority of Texas’ House and Congressional district maps, ending the years-long debate over whether Texas’ legislatures intentionally drew districts to discriminate against minorities.
The concept of written legal rules—of the law itself—assumes that their content is fixed and ascertainable. The rule of law likewise depends on citizens having advance notice of what they can and cannot do, pursuant to clear, knowable directives. Legal scholars expend enormous energy pontificating about the appropriate techniques judges should apply in the course of constitutional interpretation: textualism, originalism, and so forth. Libertarian theorists argue strenuously that judges must be given greater authority—through “judicial engagement”—over the political branches. Each day, lawyers across the country trot off to court, briefs in hand, hoping to convince a black-robed judge–enthroned behind a raised, magisterial bench—that the relevant legal rules, properly construed, compel a ruling in favor of their client.
BROWNSVILLE – A lawsuit brought by Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia against federal officials and agencies alleges that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program is not based on firm constitutional ground.
AUSTIN – On April 24, Attorney General Ken Paxton commended Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller and a top lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice after they presented powerful oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in defense of Texas’ redistricting maps.
TYLER – The Tyler Division of the Eastern District of Texas has ordered AdjustaCam LLC to pay Newegg $546,865.85 in attorneys’ fees and expenses, ending a suit filed in 2010 against it and 55 other defendants.
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a friend-of-the-court brief signed by other state attorneys general with the U.S. Supreme Court in regards to President Donald Trump's travel ban.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed federal jurisdiction in Texas’ lawsuit against New Mexico on March 5, ordering the case involving water rights to the Rio Grande River to be remanded back to the Special Master.
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is challenging a U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruling that declared Texas district maps were drawn with the intent to discriminate against minorities.
Rarely do challengers of landmark legislation get a second bite at the apple in constitutional litigation. Thanks to some enterprising state attorneys general, however, champions of limited government may have another chance to overturn the signature overreach of the Obama Administration. Six years after Obamacare was initially upheld, opponents of the law (technically “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” or “ACA”) are preparing a second test case, based—ironically enough—on the implausible rationale of the initial ruling.
