Democratic lawyers pursuing legal action against Paxton
Roughly 150 Texas attorneys have signed on to a letter threatening to file a complaint with the State Bar of Texas against Attorney General Ken Paxton for his response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage.
Also on Friday, former state Rep. Glen Maxey, the Texas Democratic Party’s county affairs director and the first openly gay legislator in Texas, filed a complaint against Paxton with the State Bar, calling the attorney general’s response “dishonest … and in violation of the United States Constitution.”
“For a Texas lawyer to engage in such conduct is a blatant violation of ethical duties,” Maxey wrote in his complaint.
The letter from the larger group of lawyers makes the same points.
“It seems to us that your edict to encourage Texas clerks to violate a direct ruling of the United States Supreme Court violates” the State Bar’s rules requiring attorneys to uphold the U.S. Constitution, the letter states.
After the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide, Paxton issued an opinion telling Texas clerks they did not have to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples if it violated their religious beliefs — though he suggested that they could face litigation.
On Friday, Paxton spokeswoman Cynthia Meyer said the attorney general’s legal opinion was “a nonbinding interpretation of the law,” one that “emphasizes the importance of protecting religious liberty while enforcing the Supreme Court’s expanded definition of marriage.”
If Paxton doesn’t change his direction to county clerks in the coming weeks, Steve Fischer, a former director of the State Bar of Texas, said he plans to file a complaint he anticipates hundreds of other lawyers will sign onto.
“I think he could very easily be disbarred,” said Fischer, who wrote the letter sent to Paxton’s office Friday. “He violated his oath to specifically uphold the United States Constitution.”
Paxton hiring practices questioned
When seeking a job at the Texas attorney general’s office, it appears it can be less about what is on your résumé than who you know.
In Attorney General Ken Paxton’s first weeks in office, he filled his higher ranks with at least 14 people connected to him and other prominent Republicans — quiet “appointments” that his office defends in spite of state law, which requires that jobs be advertised when they’re filled from outside the agency.
An American-Statesman review of more than 1,800 pages of personnel files reveals that hiring procedures were relaxed or altogether ignored for those who had worked for Paxton, former Gov. Rick Perry or U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Records show several were hired weeks before they had even applied for the jobs, if an application was completed at all.
Meanwhile, people whose résumés didn’t include political connections often faced months of red tape, interviews and vetting — just the sort of competition that state law envisions for coveted state jobs.
It is not uncommon for elected officials to ignore a decades-old law meant to prevent political patronage in Texas, but the number of Paxton’s so-called appointees is notable, and correspondence obtained under the Texas Public Information Act suggests Paxton was promising lucrative jobs to his political allies months before he took office.
The Statesman reviewed files of 39 employees hired under Paxton, all of whom earn more than $70,000 a year.
— Austin American-Statesman
This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Democratic lawyers pursuing legal action against Paxton."