This text was initially revealed at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.
Quickly after his acquittal in an impeachment trial final weekend, Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton launched a press release that lambasted the proceedings but additionally spelled out his plan to proceed difficult Biden administration insurance policies now that he was being reinstated in workplace.
“Now that this shameful course of is over, my work to defend our constitutional rights will resume,” the assertion learn.
“Now it’s again to work!”
Along with his reinstatement, Paxton will return to his job overseeing an workplace of almost 4,000 workers who deal with 1000’s of authorized instances yearly — a lot of them linked to state companies going through lawsuits.
However an investigation revealed this month by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune discovered Paxton denied requests for illustration at the least 75 occasions. That included situations wherein Paxton refused to defend companies preventing lawsuits linked to insurance policies he’s publicly opposed, like affirmative motion and homosexual marriage, in line with information the information organizations obtained by means of public info requests.
Paxton didn’t reply to questions from ProPublica and the Tribune about these denials. Neither did the legal professional common’s workplace, aside from to say it has permitted the overwhelming majority of solicitations for assist. The majority of the denials, the legal professional common’s workplace has mentioned, had been as a result of the companies most popular to rent their very own legal professionals. In different instances, the legal professional common’s workplace mentioned, it might refuse a request for assist as a result of defending an company would battle with state legislation or with positions the legal professional common has taken in different lawsuits.
First Assistant Lawyer Basic Brent Webster instructed state lawmakers throughout a legislative listening to in February that Paxton’s workplace had “by no means prevented somebody from defending themselves. There’s no precedent for that.”
Nevertheless, every week earlier, the legal professional common’s workplace had successfully executed simply that, withholding a choice on whether or not or to not characterize the College of Texas System in a case, but additionally refusing to provide the college a inexperienced mild to rent outdoors counsel.
ProPublica and the Tribune have compiled an inventory of situations wherein the legal professional common’s workplace refused requests for illustration. The rationale the workplace mentioned was mostly cited — companies wanting their very own legal professionals — didn’t issue into a lot of the examples detailed beneath.
Public Universities
The information organizations discovered quite a few examples of Paxton’s workplace refusing to characterize public universities that obtain state funding.
Requester: College of Houston-Clear Lake
Request date: Nov. 30, 2021
Denial date: Nov. 30, 2021. The legal professional common’s workplace mentioned in a letter that the request was “not appropriate for illustration by our workplace.” A spreadsheet offered to the information organizations by the state Legislative Price range Board mentioned the case conflicted with positions the legal professional common’s workplace had taken in different litigation.
Case: Two college students and Ratio Christi, a Christian group that defends and shares its religion on school campuses, sued the college on Oct. 25, 2021, after it refused to acknowledge a brand new chapter. Based on the lawsuit, the college wouldn’t acknowledge the chapter as a result of it believed the group’s requirement that leaders be Christian ran afoul of the establishment’s anti-discrimination coverage.
Ratio Christi was represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit authorized agency that works to develop Christian practices in public faculties and authorities in addition to to outlaw abortion and same-sex relationships. Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Caleb Dalton mentioned the case was essential to pursue as a result of “the underside line is that pupil organizations, whether or not they’re Christian, Muslim, conservative or liberal, ought to be capable to require their leaders to really imagine what the group is about.”
What occurred after the denial: College spokesperson Chris Stipes mentioned this was the primary time the legal professional common’s workplace had rejected representing the College of Houston in a lawsuit. In consequence, the college’s Workplace of Basic Counsel took on the case. It settled the lawsuit in February 2022, earlier than it was scheduled to answer the allegations in courtroom. The college agreed to permit pupil teams to “restrict officers to these members who subscribe to the tenets of that group.” The college additionally agreed to pay the plaintiffs $26,200 in attorneys charges and damages. Requested whether or not the end result of the case would have been completely different had the legal professional common’s workplace represented the college, Stipes mentioned any response “can be purely speculative.”
Response: Stipes mentioned the college’s Workplace of Basic Counsel devoted time and assets to the case, however he was unable to supply an actual quantity. Paxton and the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t reply questions on this case.
Requester: College of Houston
Request date: Feb. 28, 2022
Denial date: March 10, 2022. The legal professional common’s workplace mentioned in a letter that the request was “not applicable for illustration by our workplace.” A spreadsheet the information organizations obtained from the Legislative Price range Board mentioned the legal professional common’s workplace thought the case conflicted with positions it had taken in different litigation.
Case: The group Speech First sued the college on Feb. 23, 2022, on behalf of three politically conservative college students, arguing the college’s anti-harassment coverage, which the lawsuit described as “proscribing offensive speech about private traits reminiscent of race, ethnicity or gender,” violated the First and 14th amendments.
What occurred after the denial: The college retained outdoors counsel that represented it without cost. In Might 2022, the college amended its anti-harassment coverage to specify that harassment should rise to the extent of denying a pupil entry to training by making a hostile studying setting. In June 2022, the College of Houston settled the case by agreeing to formally undertake the amended coverage and pay the plaintiffs $30,000 for attorneys charges.
Response: Stipes, the college spokesperson, mentioned the legal professional common’s denial on this case was stunning. The legal professional common’s workplace has beforehand represented the college in related instances, he mentioned. “The OAG has executed nice work for UH within the instances we now have had through the years.” Speech First didn’t reply to requests for an interview. Paxton and the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t reply questions on this case.
Requester: Texas A&M College System
Request date: Sept. 13, 2022
Denial date: Oct. 13, 2022. The legal professional common’s workplace mentioned in a letter that the matter was “not appropriate for illustration by our workplace.”
Case: Richard Lowery, a professor on the College of Texas at Austin, sued Texas A&M College, arguing the college illegally used race and intercourse preferences in college hiring and compensation, after its Workplace for Range despatched a memo asserting the allocation of $2 million for the establishment’s Accountability, Local weather, Fairness and Scholarship School Fellows Program. This system gives a 50% match of a base wage and advantages, as much as a most contribution of $100,000, for brand spanking new, mid-career and senior tenure-track hires from underrepresented teams. Lowery mentioned within the lawsuit he was “in a position and prepared” to use for a job at Texas A&M, however argued the college’s program prevented him from competing equally with the opposite candidates. Texas A&M has mentioned that Lowery didn’t have standing to carry a lawsuit as a result of he had not utilized for a job. It mentioned that nothing within the memo Lowery cited “signifies that anybody has been employed below this program, nor that any applicant of any race or gender will probably be excluded from consideration as soon as applied.”
Lowery is represented by Jonathan Mitchell, the previous solicitor common of Texas who has made a reputation litigating conservative causes, and by America First Authorized, which was based in 2021 by Stephen Miller, a former coverage adviser to former President Donald Trump.
What occurred after the denial: Texas A&M retained outdoors counsel. The college argued that the case ought to be dismissed as moot after Senate Invoice 17 handed earlier this yr, prohibiting public universities from giving desire to candidates for college positions primarily based on their race, intercourse, coloration, ethnicity or nationwide origin. However Lowery has argued that the college can’t be trusted to comply with the legislation. The case is ongoing.
Response: Texas A&M, which has been denied illustration by the legal professional common at the least three different occasions since 2021, in line with information, didn’t reply to requests for an interview or questions. Mitchell and America First Authorized didn’t reply questions in regards to the case. Paxton and the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t reply questions on this case.
Requester: College of Texas System
Request date: Jan. 12
Denial date: In its Feb. 14 response, the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t deny the college system illustration however withheld a choice on whether or not to characterize the system and withheld a choice on whether or not or not it might retain outdoors counsel.
Case: In January, a person named George Stewart sued six medical faculties that had rejected his functions for admission. The entire faculties had been within the UT System, besides one which was a part of the Texas Tech College System. Stewart, who’s white, argued that the faculties had been “unlawfully discriminating in opposition to whites, Asians, and males.” The legal professional common’s workplace instructed the UT System in a letter it agreed with the plaintiff’s argument that contemplating race and gender in pupil admissions was unlawful and that it was awaiting the end result of different affirmative motion instances earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court docket. The legal professional common’s workplace additionally wrote within the letter that it had filed briefs urging the courtroom to put off affirmative motion as a result of it was “abhorrent to the Structure.” UT might characterize itself, the letter mentioned, however just for the aim of requesting extensions within the case. In a courtroom submitting, the UT System mentioned by withholding a choice on the denial, the legal professional common’s workplace “might doubtlessly deny the UT Austin Defendants any litigation counsel by any means.”
What occurred after the denial: UT requested for at the least two extra deadline extensions within the case. Ultimately, the legal professional common allowed the UT System to rent outdoors counsel to characterize it, whereas Paxton was suspended from workplace. The legal professional common’s workplace is representing the Texas Tech College Well being Sciences Heart within the case, although it could not clarify what differentiated one college from the opposite.
Response: A UT System spokesperson declined to debate the case however mentioned the college, like each state company, is required to ask the legal professional common for illustration or outdoors counsel. The UT System has in the end been capable of safe counsel. The Texas Tech College Well being Sciences Heart didn’t reply to requests for remark. Stewart and his attorneys, Mitchell and America First Authorized, didn’t reply questions in regards to the case. Paxton and the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t reply questions on this case.
Requester: College of Texas at Austin
Request date: Feb. 13
Denial date: March 6. The legal professional common’s workplace denied the request, stating in a letter that the request was “not applicable for illustration by our workplace.” It offered no additional clarification within the letter.
Case: Lowery, the identical UT professor who sued Texas A&M in 2022, sued three College of Texas at Austin officers on Feb. 8, 2023. On this lawsuit, Lowery claims college officers engaged in “a marketing campaign to silence (him) by threatening his job, pay, institute affiliation, analysis alternatives, tutorial freedom, and labeling his habits as inviting violence or missing in civility.” He claims college officers did this after he publicly criticized them for utilizing variety, fairness and inclusion necessities to filter out competent lecturers with a differing viewpoint.
What occurred after the denial: The legal professional common’s choice delayed the case, mentioned Del Kolde, a senior legal professional on the Institute for Free Speech who’s representing Lowery. Kolde needed to request a listening to as quickly as doable to acquire a courtroom order for UT to not retaliate in opposition to Lowery, however UT officers requested for persistence as they waited to listen to whether or not the legal professional common’s workplace would characterize them, Kolde instructed the information organizations. On March 2, the college notified the courtroom it had retained outdoors counsel and requested for extra time to answer the lawsuit, a request the choose granted. Kolde would have most popular the illustration choice be made extra shortly. “In my private expertise coping with public-entity defendants in varied jurisdictions, the choice about who would characterize the UT defendants took longer than what I’m used to seeing,” he mentioned. “I don’t, nevertheless, know why it took so lengthy.”
The case is ongoing.
“I’m positive that it’s costing the taxpayer extra to have an out of doors legislation agency deal with this than a salaried worker of the workplace of the legal professional common,” Kolde mentioned.
Response: The college didn’t reply to requests for an interview or reply questions. Paxton and the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t reply questions on this case.
Small State Companies
The information organizations discovered situations wherein Paxton’s workplace refused to characterize smaller companies with little to no funds to pay for personal attorneys. Some smaller state companies have common counsel on workers, however these attorneys might not have the expertise or bandwidth to deal with litigation.
The information organizations discovered one small company that the legal professional common’s workplace hasn’t represented in courtroom for years and one other that Paxton’s workplace mentioned it could characterize — however it wouldn’t use what might have been top-of-the-line defenses out there.
Requester: Board of Disciplinary Appeals
Request date: March 30
Denial date: Might 2. The legal professional common’s workplace mentioned it could characterize the company however in a restricted manner.
Case: The Board of Disciplinary Appeals, made up of 12 attorneys appointed by the state Supreme Court docket, disciplines Texas legal professionals. This yr, a former lawyer sued board members who disbarred her in 2012 (not one of the defendants nonetheless serve on the board). The legal professional common’s workplace mentioned it could characterize the previous board members, however conditionally: Particularly, it mentioned it could not use as a protection part of the Texas Rule of Disciplinary Process that claims board members “are immune from go well with for any conduct in the midst of their official duties.” That call stunned Kelli Hinson, the present board chair, who described the immunity protection as a “vital one which I’d need asserted if it had been me.”
Typically talking, Hinson mentioned, defending board members who make judicial selections and asserting their immunity is essential to ensure individuals need to proceed serving in these sorts of volunteer roles. The entire foundation of immunity is “that you simply shouldn’t be capable to sue somebody serving a judicial perform for the choice that they make.”
What occurred after the denial: The previous board members in the end selected to not be represented by Paxton’s workplace. Hinson is as a substitute representing them, without cost. The board doesn’t have a funds for out of doors counsel, Hinson mentioned. It has a complete of three workers. “I didn’t really feel like they need to need to pay for a lawyer to defend them.” The previous board members not too long ago filed a movement asking the choose to dismiss the case in opposition to them.
Response: Hinson mentioned she doesn’t know why the legal professional common’s workplace declined to boost the immunity protection however believes the board members in the end will prevail in courtroom. “I’m assured that they’re going to win in the long run. So it’s simply, would you like 5 air arrows in your quiver or 4? And I feel you’d need as many as you could possibly get,” Hinson mentioned. Paxton and the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t reply questions on this case.
Requester: Texas Ethics Fee
Request date: Unknown
Denial date: Aug. 22, 2014, and Oct. 17, 2016
Case: Empower Texans, a conservative advocacy group that donated lots of of 1000’s of {dollars} to Paxton through the years, and its chief Michael Quinn Sullivan, challenged the fee’s enforcement of state marketing campaign finance and lobbyist registration legal guidelines as unconstitutional in instances now earlier than the Texas Supreme Court docket.
One case stems from the fee discovering in 2014 that Sullivan did not register as a lobbyist, ordering him to pay a $10,000 wonderful. He appealed, arguing that registering restricts free speech and the state can’t present that being compensated for speech is corrupt. On the time, Gov. Greg Abbott was nonetheless legal professional common. An August 2014 San Antonio Categorical-Information story reported that the Ethics Fee determined to rent an out of doors legislation agency to characterize it on this case. Nevertheless, the Ethics Fee has mentioned in legislative appropriations requests that the legal professional common’s workplace declined to characterize it.
The opposite case stems from the fee’s investigation of Empower Texans and Sullivan allegedly violating marketing campaign finance provisions governing political motion committees. The fee sued Empower Texans and Sullivan on Oct. 15, 2015, to get the group to show over extra info as a part of an investigation into these alleged violations. The legal professional common’s workplace, by this time below Paxton’s management, initially represented the fee. In September 2016, the legal professional common’s workplace dropped the fee’s effort to get a choose to order Empower Texans and Sullivan to adjust to its subpoenas for info. However the case remained alive due to Empower Texans’ and Sullivan’s counterclaim that the fee couldn’t implement marketing campaign finance legal guidelines as a result of it’s a part of the legislative department of presidency. A short while later, the Houston Chronicle reported, fee leaders instructed workers of the state Legislative Price range Board that the company wanted cash to rent outdoors legal professionals as a result of it couldn’t depend upon Paxton’s workplace to defend the company sooner or later. In October 2016, the legal professional common’s workplace requested a choose if a non-public lawyer might take the place of somebody in its workplace to characterize the fee. The choose agreed.
What occurred after the denial: The fee requested from the state Legislature an extra $150,000 per yr for out of doors authorized counsel to defend it in these instances, beginning in 2016. The Legislature elevated the quantity the fee was approved to spend on outdoors authorized counsel in 2018 to $300,000 per yr. As of Sept. 1, the fee has spent almost $1.1 million for illustration in these instances. The instances are ongoing. The Texas Supreme Court docket has mentioned it’s going to hear oral arguments in Empower Texans’ case on Nov. 30 and has requested extra details about Sullivan’s case.
Response: The Ethics Fee declined to touch upon the denial and the instances. The Empower Texans PAC dissolved in October 2020, information present. It stopped posting to its web site in 2021. Sullivan didn’t reply to calls and emails requesting an interview or to questions on this case. Paxton and the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t reply questions on this case, together with whether or not Empower Texans’ monetary contributions to him influenced the legal professional common’s workplace’s choice to not characterize the fee on this case. In 2018, a spokesperson for the legal professional common declined to elucidate why he refused to characterize the fee. He instructed the Houston Chronicle that the workplace takes its obligation to defend company enforcement actions significantly, however its “first obligation is to defend the Structure and the essential rights it ensures to each Texan.”
Company: State Fee on Judicial Conduct
Request date: 2020
Denial date: 2020
Instances: In late 2019, Dianne Hensley, a justice of the peace in Waco, Texas, sued the judicial fee after it issued her a public warning due to statements she made to the media about disagreeing with and refusing to carry out same-sex marriages after they’d been legalized, casting “doubt on her capability to behave impartially.” Hensley’s lawsuit argued that the fee’s public punishment of the justice of the peace constituted “a considerable burden” on her “free train of faith,” in line with courtroom information. A couple of months later, Brian Umphress, the county choose of Jack County, sued the judicial fee in federal courtroom, arguing that he additionally was vulnerable to being sanctioned as a result of he didn’t carry out same-sex marriages. The legal professional common’s workplace declined to characterize the judicial fee in each instances. Each Hensley and Umphress are represented by Mitchell, the previous solicitor common. The plaintiffs have additionally sooner or later been represented by First Liberty Institute, a Plano, Texas-based conservative Christian legislation agency. The agency’s president and chief government, Kelly Shackelford, is a longtime pal of Paxton’s. First Liberty’s government common counsel, Hiram Sasser, briefly labored for the legal professional common’s workplace below Paxton. First Liberty board member Tim Dunn is amongst Paxton’s greatest particular person donors.
What occurred after the denials: The state judicial fee spent greater than $120,000 to pay for out of doors counsel after the legal professional common refused to characterize it. Company Govt Director Jacqueline Habersham efficiently lobbied state legislators for an extra $150,000 to fund the fee’s authorized illustration over the following two years. The Texas Supreme Court docket will hear Hensley’s case in October. Umphress misplaced in federal district courtroom however appealed to the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the fifth Circuit. The fifth Circuit has but to rule.
Response: Habersham mentioned she hopes nobody else recordsdata a lawsuit in opposition to the fee wherein the legal professional common’s workplace chooses to not characterize it. Mitchell, Shackelford and Dunn didn’t reply to requests for remark. Sasser, who primarily has labored on the Hensley case, mentioned in an interview he would have been upset had the legal professional common chosen to characterize the fee. Paxton and the legal professional common’s workplace didn’t reply questions on this case.
