Tag Archives: Texas Civil Rights Project

Most of the lawsuit against the voter suppression law survives a motion to dismiss

Posted on August 6, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Some good news. In a limited order this week, a federal judge threw out some civil rights and discrimination claims brought as part of a complex and ongoing legal dispute over strict new voting rules in Texas. The lawsuit filed last year alleges that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Most of the lawsuit against the voter suppression law survives a motion to dismiss

State ordered to turn over voter purge data

Posted on August 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Very good. A federal judge ruled this week that the state is violating U.S. law by refusing to release its list of more than 11,000 registered voters that it identified as potential noncitizens, and ordered the release of the data … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The State Bar’s response to Paxton

Posted on July 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, the State Bar of Texas filed a lawsuit against Ken Paxton in a Collin County district court in order to proceed with the complaint filed against Paxton for his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election by filing … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The State Bar’s response to Paxton

Paxton responds to State Bar lawsuit against him

Posted on July 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Blah blah blah, you can’t sue me, blah blah blah. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to dismiss a professional misconduct lawsuit filed by the state bar against him related to his legal challenge of the 2020 presidential election, … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Paxton responds to State Bar lawsuit against him

State Bar finally files that professional misconduct lawsuit against Paxton

Posted on May 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve been eagerly awaiting this. A disciplinary committee for the State Bar of Texas on Wednesday filed a professional misconduct lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential elections in four … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

More State Bar disciplinary stuff

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

A new twist, as a new player enters the picture. The Texas State Bar has filed a suit in Williamson County district court against First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster for his involvement in the state’s lawsuit seeking to overturn … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on More State Bar disciplinary stuff

Paxton whines about the disciplinary process he selected

Posted on May 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

My head hurts. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s top lawyer, said Friday the state bar was suing him for professional misconduct related to his lawsuit challenging the 2020 presidential election. “I have recently learned that the Texas State … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Second lawsuit filed over Galveston redistricting

Posted on April 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Similar grounds, different plaintiffs. A coalition of civil rights groups in Texas filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Galveston County, alleging that the county’s redistricting plan intentionally discriminates against a growing minority population in the Gulf Coast community. The complaint, … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Second lawsuit filed over Galveston redistricting

We have a final count of rejected mail ballots

Posted on April 7, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

About one in eight got canned. That’s a lot. The votes of more than 24,000 Texans who tried to cast ballots by mail were thrown out in the March primary — a dramatic increase in rejected ballots in the first … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Guess who’s paying for Ken Paxton’s defense against those state bar complaints?

Posted on March 31, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

You are, of course. What did you expect? Texas taxpayers are on the hook for $45,000 so far in legal defense for Attorney General Ken Paxton as he attempts to ward off multiple complaints to the State Bar over his … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Guess who’s paying for Ken Paxton’s defense against those state bar complaints?

First “Trump Train” lawsuit to proceed

Posted on March 26, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Good news. Today, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled in favor of plaintiffs in Cervini v. Cisneros, the “Texas Trump Train” lawsuit filed against individuals in a convoy of Trump supporters who conspired to mount … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Still more on the mail ballot rejections

Posted on March 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

The Associated Press moves the ball forward now that the votes have been canvassed. Texas threw out mail votes at an abnormally high rate during the nation’s first primary of 2022, rejecting nearly 23,000 ballots outright under tougher voting rules … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

More data about mail ballot rejections

Posted on March 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Keep it coming. Thousands of Texans who attempted to vote by mail in the March primary were disenfranchised in the state’s first election conducted under a new Republican voting law. The state’s largest counties saw a significant spike in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The rejected mail ballots of Bexar County

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I have four things to say about this. Bexar County rejected mail-in ballots at roughly ten times the rate it did before the passage of the state’s new voting law last year. Before Senate Bill 1 took effect, with its … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

State Bar complaint against Paxton to proceed

Posted on March 10, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Nice, but I’m still not expecting there to be consequences for him. I will be delighted to be wrong about that. A Texas State Bar complaint against Attorney General Ken Paxton is moving forward and will be heard by either … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Voting Rights Groups Sue Texas for Failure to Disclose Records Related to Voter Purges

Posted on February 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: The Campaign Legal Center (CLC), the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and DĒMOS filed a lawsuit asking the U.S. … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Don’t expect the absentee ballot fiasco to improve

Posted on January 25, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Things are working as planned. Signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in September, the voting law known as Senate Bill 1 contained an array of new restrictions on the state’s voting process and narrowed local control of elections. Among … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2022 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

It would seem that the San Marcos Police Department has some major problems

Posted on January 9, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Geez. The city of San Marcos admits in new court documents to text exchanges among its police officers about the Joe Biden bus incident in October 2020. But it denies what it calls a “characterization” of the exchanges by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on It would seem that the San Marcos Police Department has some major problems

How’s that online voter registration thing going?

Posted on December 28, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Pretty well, it seems. So well, perhaps, that the state of Texas doesn’t want to tell you how well. Since a federal judge forced Texas nearly a year and a half ago to offer limited online voter registration, 1.5 million … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The botched “non-citizen” voter purge continues

Posted on December 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

At some point we need to recognize the fact that our Secretary of State’s office is completely, and maybe maliciously, inept at doing this. Texas’ last attempt to scour its voting rolls for noncitizens two years ago quickly devolved into … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Trump Train lawsuit update

Posted on November 2, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

San Marcos Police Department, wyd? As supporters of then-President Donald Trump surrounded and harassed a Joe Biden campaign bus on a Central Texas highway last year, San Marcos police officials and 911 dispatchers fielded multiple requests for assistance from Democratic … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Trump Train lawsuit update

Abbott and Patrick whine about State Bar complaint against Paxton

Posted on September 27, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Poor, poor babies. The state’s top officials came to the defense of embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton, saying a state bar investigation into his professional conduct is “politically motivated” and raises questions about the state’s separation of powers. On Friday, … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A kinder, gentler voter purge

Posted on September 19, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

How nice. Two years after Texas officials fumbled an effort to double-check the voting rolls on a hunt for non-citizens — and instead threatened the voting rights of nearly 60,000 eligible Texans — similar efforts to purge non-citizen voters are … Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

First two lawsuits filed against the voter suppression bill

Posted on September 4, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

No time wasted. The top elections official in Harris County and a host of organizations that serve Texans of color and Texans with disabilities have fired the opening salvos in what’s expected to be an extensive legal battle over Texas’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on First two lawsuits filed against the voter suppression bill

Final settlement in Motor Voter 2.0 lawsuit

Posted on August 4, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

From Democracy Docket: Last Friday, individual Texan voters, the Texas Democratic Party, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) settled a five-year long lawsuit with Texas over its noncompliance with the National Voter Registration … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Another State Bar complaint against Paxton

Posted on July 23, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

He certainly deserves all the trouble this has brought him. Whether any of it leads to actual consequences, we’ll have to see. Four former presidents of the State Bar of Texas joined a group of high-profile lawyers on Wednesday to … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Suing the “Trump Train”

Posted on June 25, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Good. A group of people traveling on a President Joe Biden campaign bus on a Texas highway last fall when it was surrounded and followed by former President Donald Trump’s supporters have filed a lawsuit against at least seven people … Continue reading →

Posted in Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

House committee passes its voter suppression bill

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

I remain pessimistic about this, but we have no choice but to fight. A Texas House committee on Thursday advanced an elections bill that would make it a state jail felony for local election officials to distribute an application to … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

More local pushback against SB7 and HB6

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Mayor Sylvester Turner invited a diverse group of elected officials, community leaders, and business executives to stand in solidarity against voter suppression bills in the Texas Legislature. More than 50 individuals and organizations have vowed to fight … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Census apportionment shenanigans to be officially curtailed

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

As it should be. The Trump administration’s protracted efforts to keep some immigrants from being counted when congressional seats are divvied up after the 2020 census ended with the former president’s departure from the White House, but President Joe Biden’s … Continue reading →

Posted in National news, That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Census apportionment shenanigans to be officially curtailed

I remain pessimistic about the chances of good voting bills passing

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This Trib story suggests that with Republicans doing well in the high turnout 2020 election, and with the emergency measures that were implemented to expand voting access, the odds of getting a bill passed to make some forms of voting … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hey, look, it’s online voter registration!

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

And they said it couldn’t be done. When Jarrod Stringer updated his driver’s license address in 2014, the Texas Department of Public Safety website asked if he wanted to register to vote. He clicked yes and thought he was registered. … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Where are we with the lawsuit to stop Harris County from sending out vote by mail applications?

Posted on September 10, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Thanks for asking, we had the hearing in district court yesterday. Voting in person will be safe across Texas in this fall’s general election despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the state’s elections director asserted in a Harris County courtroom Wednesday … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2020, Legal matters | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

Will we have redistricting hearings?

Posted on September 5, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Not looking great for it right now. In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas Republicans have quietly halted plans to hold a series of public input hearings across more than 20 cities, slated to occur earlier this year, to … Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Will we have redistricting hearings?