Wednesday, August 5, 2015 5:54 PM EDT
More Texas Breaking News.
From the New York Times:
A federal appeals panel ruled Wednesday that a strict voter identification law in Texas discriminated against black and Hispanic voters and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — a decision that election experts called an important step toward defining the future reach of the landmark law.
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The state of federal voting protections has been uncertain since 2013, when the Supreme Court blocked the act’s most potent enforcement tool, a requirement that numerous states, including Texas, with histories of discrimination receive federal clearance before changing election rules.
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The Texas ID case — along with another in Texas challenging its redistricting plans and a case in North Carolina over broader changes in election rules — has been closely watched in legal circles to see how courts will interpret the remaining provisions of the landmark federal law.
Read more here
Update II:
Adding to the embarrassment and woes for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton who is already facing three felony counts of state securities law violations, he and another top Texas health official have been ordered to appear before a federal judge in San Antonio next week to see “if they should be held in contempt for violating a court order prohibiting enforcement of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage,” according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The order stems back to Texas state officials declining to amend the death certificate of a Texas man’s male spouse to reflect their 2014 marriage in New Mexico, “saying they were still reviewing last June’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned all remaining state bans on gay marriage.”
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia has issued a ruling ordering state officials to amend the death certificate and ordered Paxton and another Texas official to appear in his courtroom for a hearing “on whether they should be held in contempt of court for disobeying his July order prohibiting Texas from enforcing its ban on same-sex marriage.”
Read more here
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Update I:
The Austin American Statesman reports that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton “was arrested and booked in Collin County around 10:30 a.m. Monday on three counts of felony securities law violations that allegedly took place before he became a statewide official in January.”
“Paxton turned himself in at the Collin County jail in his hometown of McKinney north of Dallas and was quickly released,” says the Statesman. It adds:
Around noon, the indictment against Paxton was unsealed and made public, revealing that two first-degree fraud charges were based on Paxton’s efforts in July 2011 to sell stock on behalf of Servergy Inc., a McKinney-based tech company.
Below is Paxton’s mugshot, from the Collin County Jail. One has to wonder wonders why the man is smiling.
Read more here.
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Original post:
Almost a year ago, a Texas Travis County grand jury handed down two felony indictments against then-Gov. Rick Perry. The indictments allege Perry abused the powers of his office when he threatened to veto funding for the state’s public integrity unit unless Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, who had pleaded guilty to drunken driving, resigned.
A week ago Friday, a state appeals court threw out one of the two indictments against Perry, the one alleging that he coerced Lehmberg when he threatened to veto state funding for the state’s public integrity unit, but the court left standing the indictment which accuses Perry of abusing his power.
The remaining felony indictment could prove embarrassing for Perry as “the appeals court ruling moves Perry closer to a trial that could be a headache during a presidential campaign,” according to the Texas tribune.
Today, a new headache for Texas Republicans as Dallas-Fort Worth based WFAA News 8 and other sources such as the New York Times report that the Texas Attorney Geneneral, Ken Paxton, has been indicted on felony charges, “the first Texas attorney general in more than 30 years to be indicted while in office.”
WFAA:
A grand jury has indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on multiple felony charges, according to several sources who are familiar with the complaints. The charges will be unsealed in McKinney on Monday about noon, and a Tarrant County judge has already been appointed to preside over the case, sources told News 8.
“After the indictments are unsealed, Paxton can surrender to be photographed, fingerprinted and booked at any of the state’s 254 county jails,” WFAA says and adds:
Special prosecutors in the Paxton case told News 8 they planned to present a third-degree charge of failing to register with the state securities board, as the law requires. They also said they planned to present a first degree felony charge against Paxton accusing him of securities fraud. All indications are that charge is related to Servergy, a McKinney-based company that has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Just as was the case with former governor Rick Perry, the Texas Attorney general “does not have to resign or step down from statewide office as he prepares to face a criminal trial,” according to WFAA
Texas Democratic Party deputy executive director Manny Garcia said in a statement Saturday afternoon, “It’s time for Paxton to face the consequences…This is yet another example of the corrupt culture that fester [sic] with one-party, unchecked Republican power.”
WFAA comments, “Despite the criminal investigation, Rep. Krause said Paxton’s Tea Party base still supports him.”
Lead image: www.shuttertock.com
