Weekly News Round Up Of The State’s Top Law Enforcement Officer – Texas Attorney General
Staff Report
Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton is the lawyer for the State of Texas and is charged by the Texas Constitution to:
- defend the laws and the Constitution of the State of Texas
- represent the State in litigation
- approve public bond issues
To fulfill these responsibilities, the Office of the Attorney General serves as legal counsel to all boards and agencies of state government, issues 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/.
WEEKLY NEWS ROUND-UP OF THE STATE’S
TOP LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER…
THE TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL
AG Paxton Hails SCOTUS Decision Backing Missouri in Death Penalty Case
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today applauded the U.S. Supreme Court after it rejected a death row inmate’s challenge to Missouri’s plan to execute him by lethal injection.
Last August, Attorney General Paxton led a coalition of 16 state attorneys general in filing a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in defense of Missouri’s lethal injection protocol.
Convicted murderer Russell Bucklew claimed that his execution by lethal injection would be unconstitutional because it would cause him severe harm and suffering due to a rare medical condition.
But the Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that inmates challenging a particular method of execution must show that an alternative method is readily available and would significantly reduce the risk of severe pain.
“The Supreme Court’s decision is important in allowing the states to proceed with the solemn duty of enforcing the death penalty enacted by their legislatures,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Had the court ruled otherwise, it would have invited death row inmates to challenge each alternative execution method subsequently adopted by the state as lacking in some way, resulting in a flood of costly lawsuits and lengthy delays in executions.” As the Supreme Court noted, Bucklew’s appeals have already gone on for decades.
Bucklew was convicted of the 1996 murder in Missouri of a man who was living with Bucklew’s ex-girlfriend. Bucklew killed the man, shot at his six-year-old son, kidnapped and raped his former girlfriend, and wounded a police officer before he was apprehended.
He then escaped from jail and attacked his ex-girlfriend’s mother and her fiancé with a hammer.
View a copy of the ruling here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/17-8151_1qm2.pdf
AG Paxton Commends 5th Circuit Ruling that Spares Texas Taxpayers from Funding Sex-Change Surgery for Prisoners
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today commended last Friday’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that Texas prison officials do not violate transgender inmates’ constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment by refusing to provide them with gender reassignment surgery.
“The 5th Circuit’s decision is a win for Texas taxpayers and the rule of law,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Americans strongly believe in the legal and moral obligation to assure our criminal justice system imposes appropriate and humane penalties, but the 5th Circuit’s faithful analysis of the Constitution makes clear that obligation does not give convicted criminals a constitutional right to a taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgery.”
In a 2-1 decision, the 5th Circuit ruled against inmate Scott Lynn Gibson, who’s serving a 20-year prison sentence for the murder of another inmate, 13 years for a deadly assault attempt on a correctional guard, and 18 years for aggravated robbery. Gibson challenged the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s policy that provides hormone and mental health treatment but does not allow sex-change surgery as treatment for Gibson’s diagnosed gender identity disorder.
Writing for the majority, 5th Circuit Judge James Ho concluded that “[u]nder established precedent, it can be cruel and unusual punishment to deny essential medical care to an inmate. But that does not mean prisons must provide whatever care an inmate wants.”
View a copy of the decision here.
AG Paxton Applauds District Court Decision Protecting Private Property Rights in Texas
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today applauded a U.S. District Court after it agreed with a Texas county and landowner whose lawsuit seeks to delist the Bone Cave Harvestman – a tiny cave-dwelling arachnid – from the endangered list under the federal Endangered Species Act.
This decision states that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service used the incorrect standard when deciding whether the Bone Cave Harvestman should be delisted under the Act, and sent the case back to Fish and Wildlife for revaluation. The attorney general filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.
Williamson County and property owner John Yearwood challenged the authority of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to use the Interstate Commerce Clause to regulate non-commercial interactions with the arachnid – which only exists in two Central Texas counties, is not bought nor traded in interstate commerce, and does not otherwise affect interstate commerce.
“The court’s decision is a victory for private property rights in Texas and a defeat for an unlawful Obama-era land grab,” Attorney General Paxton said. “As we argued in our friend-of-the-court brief, the Obama administration abused its power under the Endangered Species Act by unlawfully listing a species on the endangered list that only lives in the state of Texas and has no impact on interstate commerce.”
Under the Constitution, the federal government can only act when there is a direct logical connection between the subject being regulated and interstate commerce.
A spider that only exists underground in two Texas counties and is neither a bought nor sold commodity fails that test by definition. For such localized species, it is the state and county, not the federal government, which can best address conservation.
Yearwood owns a 35-acre property in Williamson County that’s belonged to his family for more than 140 years. He lets community organizations and church groups use it at no charge for camping and other recreational purposes.
But because the Bone Cave Harvestman was found on a portion of his property, Yearwood faced prosecution by the federal government if the arachnid was disturbed.
The harvestman, which dwells underground in limestone caves, has been listed as endangered since 1988. Williamson County currently maintains 11 harvestman habitat preserves on nearly 900 acres.
Under the Obama-era edict, landowners who knowingly harm a Bone Cave Harvestman or its habitat could be subject to $50,000 in fines and up to a year in prison. Development within 35 feet of a known harvestman cave required $400,000 an acre in mitigation permits.
View a copy of the decision here.
