Different county, same result.
Still a crook any way you look
A Bexar County district judge on Friday ruled that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton does not have the legal authority to sue Bexar County over its immigration legal services fund, blocking the state’s attempt to halt county funding for the initiative.
Mary Lou Alvarez of the 45th Civil District Court granted the county’s motion requiring the attorney general to show his authority to bring the lawsuit, finding Paxton’s office failed to identify any constitutional or statutory basis allowing it to sue the county in this case.
Under the judge’s order, Paxton and attorneys from his office may no longer appear in the case on behalf of the state. The court set a status hearing for Feb. 27 at 1:30 p.m., giving any party with proper authority the opportunity to appear. If no authorized party does so, the state’s pleadings will be struck.
Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said the decision reinforces the county’s position that its immigration legal services program serves a public purpose.
“We have a ruling that supports our legal position and our support for children and families,” Sakai said. “Today, Bexar County has an immigration legal services program that serves a public purpose for children and families.”
County attorneys emphasized that the ruling did not address the merits of the attorney general’s claims, including allegations that the program violates the Texas Constitution’s Gift Clause. Instead, the judge halted the case at the threshold question of whether Paxton has the authority to bring it at all.
“The Texas attorney general, under our constitution, has limited authority,” said Lisa Cubriel, the assistant civil district attorney who argued the case for the county. “Absent express constitutional authority or authority provided through the Texas Legislature, He doesn’t have the authority to just sue counties on their use of discretionary funding decisions.”
See here and here for more on the Harris County case, in which the state’s motion for an injunction against the program was denied, but so was the county’s motion to dismiss the suit on the grounds that Paxton didn’t have the legal authority to bring it. A trial for the Harris County suit is scheduled for December. Bexar County’s funding for its program is set to expire at the end of February so it’s not clear to me what other than a Paxton appeal of this ruling there is left to decide. Anyway, bottom line is that Ken Paxton sucks and any opportunity to dunk on him when he loses should be taken with glee. The Trib has more.
It seems to me that if Paxton were any kind of hot shot lawyer, he wouldn’t be wasting taxpayer resources on sensationalized lawsuit attempts. Correction: replace ‘hot shot lawyer’ with ‘ethical public servant’.