Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who currently serves as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015.
His first major initiative as attorney general was the formation of a special unit dedicated to combating human trafficking in Texas. During its first year of existence, the Human Trafficking and Transnational Organized Crime section helped arrest the chief executive officer of Backpage.
"Texas Attorney General Is Being Investigated by State Bar Association". The New York Times. Retrieved July 11, 2021. ^ a b Levine, Sam (July 9, 2021).
Bush is the son of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the nephew of former President and Texas Governor George W Bush, and grandson of former President George HW Bush. While his top priority is securing the Texas border, Bush says he would also be an advocate for Texas families. "The attorney general is the chief consumer advocate.
At the age of twelve, Paxton nearly lost an eye in a game of hide-and-seek; a misdiagnosis led to long-term problems with his vision. As a result, his good eye is green; his damaged one, brown and droopy. He further injured his eye while in college.
During his tenure in office, Attorney General Paxton has won major cases for Texas on immigration, school rights, EPA rules and religious freedom. Stopping the Environmental Protection Agency's “Regional Haze” rule averted higher energy rates for Texans.
Minot, NDKen Paxton / Place of birth
OfficeholdersNo.NameTerm of service47Dan Morales1991–199948John Cornyn1999–200249Greg Abbott2002–201550Ken Paxton2015–present46 more rows
Republican PartyKen Paxton / PartyThe Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main historic rival, the Democratic Party. Wikipedia
Republican PartyAngela Paxton / PartyThe Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main historic rival, the Democratic Party. Wikipedia
Sutarwalla comes to the Office of the Attorney General of Texas with more than 14 years of experience in the private sector. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago and graduated with two undergraduate degrees from the University of Texas.
Defending the State of Texas and its duly enacted laws by providing legal representation to the State, its officials and agencies, rendering legal opinions, reviewing bonds of public security, and ensuring compliance with the Texas Public Information Act.
Brent WebsterStaffOfficeOffice HolderPhone / FaxFirst Assistant Attorney GeneralBrent Webster(512) 463-2100Deputy First Assistant Attorney GeneralGrant Dorfman(512) 463-2100Chief of StaffLesley French(512) 463-2100SchedulerConstituent Affairs(512) 463-210065 more rows
As of May 20, 2022, the average annual pay for an Attorney General in Texas is $66,880 a year.
But as Merritt's star has risen, so have questions about his legal record in Texas. The state constitution does not require the attorney general to be licensed to practice law.
The primary responsibility of the Attorney-General is to protect, preserve and promote the rule of law.
The attorney general’s top deputies reported their boss to the FBI in September for alleged bribery, abuse of office and other crimes. Those allegations stem in part from Paxton’s decision to investigate Paul’s claims that a federal judge and the FBI broke the law in searches of his home and offices last year.
The other person confirmed the meeting took place and said Paxton also spoke with that person separately about his affair with the woman. Paxton is still awaiting a trial on securities fraud charges in a case that has been stalled for years over legal challenges.
Attorney General Paxton has also been aggressive in his approach to protecting the health and safety of Texans from illegal synthetic drugs. His office has filed more than a dozen lawsuits to block the sale of synthetic cannabinoids (known as Kush and Spice) in Texas.
He was re-elected to a second term in 2018. As the state’s top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Paxton leads more than 4,000 employees in 38 divisions and 117 offices around Texas.
Attorney General Paxton led a successful multistate coalition against the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have increased consumer prices for electricity and weakened the power grid in Texas. Most recently, a U.S. District Court agreed with his 20-state coalition lawsuit holding Obamacare unconstitutional.
Paxton defended Texas in a federal lawsuit involving allegations that Texas's congressional districts were gerrymandered. In 2017, a three-judge panel of a U.S. federal court based in San Antonio ruled that the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature drew congressional-district to discriminate against minority voters, and ordered the redrawing of Texas's 35th and 27th congressional districts. Paxton appealed the ruling, contending that the previous maps were lawful, and vowed to "aggressively defend the maps on all fronts"; U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett criticized the appeal as a "desperate, highly questionable Paxton-Abbott maneuver" coming "after yet another ruling against the state of Texas for intentional discrimination".
Paxton "has often criticized what he calls anti-Christian discrimination in Texas schools." In 2015, Paxton opposed an atheist group's legal action seeking a halt to the reading of religious prayers before school board meetings. In December 2016, Paxton gained attention after intervening in a dispute in Killeen, Texas, in which a middle school principal told a nurse's aide to take down a six-foot poster in the school containing a quote from Christian scripture. Paxton sided with the aide, who won in court.
In 2020, Paxton opposed an expansion of absentee voting to voters who lack immunity to COVID-19. A district judge found that such voters should be granted absentee ballots under a statutory provision that accommodates disabled individuals. After the ruling, Paxton publicly contradicted the district judge, leading votings rights advocates to file a lawsuit against Paxton for misleading voters about their eligibility to cast mail-in ballots.
Paxton led a coalition of twenty-six states challenging President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) executive action, which granted deferred action status to certain undocumented immigrants who had lived in the United States since 2010 and had children who were American citizens or lawful permanent residents. Paxton argued that the president should not be allowed to "unilaterally rewrite congressional laws and circumvent the people's representatives." The Supreme Court heard the case, United States v. Texas, and issued a split 4-4 ruling in the case in June 2016. Because of the split ruling, a 2015 lower-court ruling invalidating Obama's plan was left in place. In July 2017, Paxton led a group of Republican Attorneys General and Idaho Governor Butch Otter in threatening the Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that had been put into place by president Barack Obama, although never implemented in Texas because of legal action on behalf of the state. The other Attorneys General who joined in making the threats to Trump included Steve Marshall of Alabama, Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas, Lawrence Wasden of Idaho, Derek Schmidt of Kansas, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Doug Peterson of Nebraska, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia.
In 2012, Paxton was part of a lawsuit against Apple, charging the company with violating antitrust laws by conspiring with publishers to artificially raise the prices of electronic books. Apple was ordered to pay $400 million to U.S. consumers who paid artificially-inflated prices for e-books, and $20 million to the states in reimbursement for legal costs.
In 2016, Paxton was one of eleven Republican state attorneys general who sided with ExxonMobil in the company's suit to block a climate change probe by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
President Donald Trump, Paxton won a second term as attorney general in the general election on November 6, 2018, narrowly defeating Democratic nominee Justin Nelson, a lawyer, and Libertarian Party nominee Michael Ray Harris by a margin of 4,173,538 (50.6 percent) to 3,874,096 (47 percent) and Harris receiving 2.4%. Justin Nelson 's campaign ad for attorney general included a comedic depiction of Paxton taking a Montblanc Pen worth $1,000 from attorney Joe Joplin in 2012. The pen was later returned.
A new judge, Robert Johnson of Harris County, agrees to delay the trial for the third time as prosecutors argue they should not have to go to court before they collect a paycheck.
After sitting on the motion for six months, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declines to reconsider its ruling, leaving the future of the prosecution in question. July 2019.
In April, during Paxton’s bid to become the Republican nominee for attorney general, The Texas Tribune obtains documents showing he was not registered with the state board while he was being paid to solicit clients for a North Texas financial services firm. Paxton’s campaign launches an internal review to determine whether he had broken any laws. Soon after, the Texas State Securities Board reprimands Paxton for soliciting investment clients without being registered. He is fined $1,000 and signs a disciplinary order without disputing its findings.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission files civil charges against Paxton for allegedly misleading investors in a technology company. Paxton releases a video defending himself and calling the state’s prosecution political. In June, he fails to get the state’s criminal charges against him dismissed by an appeals court.
Johnson recuses himself from the case because the Texas Attorney General’s Office is defending him and more than 20 other Harris County judges in an unrelated lawsuit over the county’s bail practices. The case is reassigned to Harris County District Judge Jason Luong.
Paxton’s case has bounced from trial courts in North Texas, all the way up to the state’s highest court for criminal matters, back down to a trial court in Harris County — and it may go back to his home in Collin County again before the issues are resolved.
Criminal case emerges. After Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis recu ses himself from the investigation because he knows Paxton, a GOP judge appoints special prosecutors Brian Wice and Kent Schaffer and agrees to pay them $300 per hour.