Texas Issues Civil Investigative Demands To Five Leading Tech Companies Regarding Discriminatory, Biased Policies And Practices

Staff Report

The responsibilities, of the Office of the Attorney General, are to serve as legal counsel to all boards and agencies of state government, issue legal opinions when requested by the Governor, heads of state agencies, and other officials and agencies as provided by Texas statutes.

The Texas AG sits as an ex-officio member of state committees and commissions and defends challenges to state laws and suits against both state agencies and individual employees of the State.

Many Texans look to the Office of the Attorney General for guidance with disputes and legal issues. The agency receives hundreds of letters, phone calls, and visits each week about crime victims’ compensation, child support, abuse in nursing homes, possible consumer fraud, and other topics.

To find out more about the Texas Attorney General, visit the official website at https://texasattorneygeneral.gov/.

AG Paxton Issues Civil Investigative Demands to Five Leading Tech Companies Regarding Discriminatory and Biased Policies and Practices

AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today issued civil investigative demands (CIDs) to Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Web Services, and Apple, asking the companies for their policies and practices regarding content moderation and, more specifically, for information related to Parler, a social media application recently terminated or blocked by Google, Amazon, and Apple.

According to the AG’s office, these Big Tech companies have silenced voices in the social media sphere for years and shut down competing companies and platforms. It has only grown worse in recent months. And just last week, this discriminatory action included the unprecedented step of removing and blocking President Donald Trump from online media platforms.

AG Paxton: OAG Recovered $1.2 Billion for Texas Taxpayers

AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced that the Texas Office of the Attorney General recovered $1.2 billion in civil litigation between the fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2020, an average of over $200 million for each year.

This recovery total was gathered from collections in cases involving administrative law, consumer protection, antitrust, bankruptcy and collections, environmental protection, financial litigation and charitable trusts, transportation, and civil Medicaid fraud.

Some of the cases that contributed to this remarkable recovery total include settlements with:

• AstraZeneca – $110 million
• Mallinckrodt – $90 million specified for opioid abatement
• Lupin Pharmaceuticals – $63.5 million
• Wells Fargo – $40.5 million
• CVS – $22 million
• Fiat – $9.1 million
• Johnson and Johnson – $5.7 million
• Honda – $3.9 million

The $1.2 billion in recovered tax dollars does not include the record-setting $4.8 billion collected in child support during the fiscal year 2020, which served over 1.6 million children in just one year.

Learn more about the Office of the Attorney General’s duties and responsibilities to Texans here: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/about-office/duties-responsibilities.

AG Paxton Announces Appointment of Judd Stone to Solicitor General and Departure of Kyle Hawkins

AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced the departure of Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins and the appointment of Judd Stone to fill this vital role within the Office of the Attorney General.

Before joining the Texas Solicitor General’s Office in 2020, Judd Stone was Chief Counsel for Senator Ted Cruz and previously practiced at Morgan, Lewis, and Bockius in their Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Group in Washington. D.C., and at Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick. He also served as an Olin-Searle-Smith fellow at Harvard Law School.

Stone began his legal career as a law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court, to then-Chief Judge Edith Jones on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and for Justice Daniel Winfree on the Alaska Supreme Court. He received his law degree from Northwestern University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, Dallas.

Kyle Hawkins will remain with the attorney general’s office until February 1, 2021. Judd’s appointment will take effect immediately thereafter.

Request for Opinion

Official Request Summary RQ-0395-KP
Applicability of Local Government Code chapter 171 regarding conflicts of interest and Government Code chapter 573 regarding nepotism to a county attorney whose father-in-law is a partner at a law firm that contracts with the county

Date Received
Monday, January 11, 2021

Official Requestor
The Honorable Christian D. Menefee
Harris County Attorney
1019 Congress, 15th Floor
Houston, Texas 77002-1700

Request for Opinion

Official Request Summary RQ-0394-KP
Eligibility of a newly elected constable under chapter 86 of the Government Code

Date Received
Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Official Requestor
The Honorable Will Thompson
Navarro County District Attorney
300 West 3rd Avenue, Suite 301
Corsicana, Texas 7511

Notification of Opinion

Official Request Summary RQ-0365-KP
Application of section 552.143 of the Government Code to investment information published in a media source of general circulation

Official Opinion Summary KP-0348
The application of Government Code section 552.143 to investment information published in a media source of general circulation is determined by specific facts.

Notification of Opinion

Official Request Summary RQ-0389-KP
Public access to the Texas Capitol and whether members of the Legislature may vote on legislation from a location other than their respective chambers

Official Opinion Summary KP-0347
Article III, section 16 of the Texas Constitution requires that sessions of each House be open, except when the Senate is in executive session. Thus, when the Legislature meets for session in the Capitol, it must be open and accessible to the public.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits laws that abridge the freedom of speech or the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances. However, to the extent that the Capitol is a limited public forum, the Legislature may impose reasonable content-neutral conditions for the time, place, and manner of access.

Article III, section 10 establishes a quorum of two-thirds of each House to do business, and it ties quorum to “attendance.” A court could construe this term and others in the Texas Constitution to require physical presence in the chamber in order to attend and be counted for purposes of a quorum.

Article III, section 11 of the Texas Constitution provides that each “House may determine the rules of its own proceedings.” However, the House and Senate must determine procedures, consistent with the Texas and U.S. Constitutions, for providing public access, conducting public testimony, debate, and voting on legislation during the legislative session. The rules set by the House and Senate have historically conformed to constitutional restraints requiring voting and debate to occur in person.