Weekly News Round Up Of The State’s Top Law Enforcement Officer – Texas Attorney General

AG Paxton Asks U.S. District Court for Nationwide Injunction to Phase Out the Unlawful Obama-Era DACA Program…

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, 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.

WEEKLY NEWS ROUND-UP OF THE STATE’S

TOP LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER…

THE TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL

AG Paxton Asks U.S. District Court for Nationwide Injunction to Phase Out the Unlawful Obama-Era DACA Program

AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton today asked a U.S. District Court for a nationwide injunction to stop the federal government from issuing or renewing any additional permits under the unlawful Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program while Texas’ multi-state coalition lawsuit is pending and to ultimately set the program aside as unconstitutional.

In May, Attorney General Paxton led a coalition that now represents 10 states in a lawsuit against the federal government to end DACA, which granted lawful presence and work permits to nearly one million unlawfully present aliens without any authority from Congress.

The lawsuit is forward looking and does not ask the federal government to remove any alien currently covered by DACA, nor does it ask the Trump administration to rescind DACA permits that have already been issued.

“DACA is unconstitutional because it rewrote federal law over the objections of Congress,” Attorney General Paxton said. “DACA represents a dangerous view of executive power, which would allow the president to unilaterally set aside any duly enacted law.  It cannot be allowed to stand without doing serious harm to our Constitution. This lawsuit is vital to restoring the rule of law to our immigration system.”

During today’s district court hearing, lawyers from the attorney general’s office argued that DACA is as legally flawed as the Obama-era Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) program, which was intended to grant lawful presence to more than four million unlawfully present aliens. Attorney General Paxton led a successful 26-state coalition all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop DAPA.

Last September, President Trump agreed to phase out DACA by March 5 of this year after Attorney General Paxton led a 10-state coalition requesting he do so or face a court challenge.

But a ruling this year by a U.S. District Court in California blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from cancelling DACA. Similar decisions were issued by district courts in New York and Washington, D.C.

Texas is joined in the DACA lawsuit by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia, along with the governors of Maine and Mississippi.

View a copy of the lawsuit here: https://bit.ly/2JKjh3P
View a copy of the motion seeking a nationwide injunction here: https://bit.ly/2KumAgE
View a copy of a response brief filed on August 3, 2018 here: https://bit.ly/2MeNSrL 

AG Paxton Recovers $110 Million for Texas in Medicaid Fraud Settlements

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced that pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca agreed to pay $110 million to the state of Texas to settle lawsuits alleging that the company falsely and misleadingly marketed two of its drugs in violation of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act.

AstraZeneca was accused of engaging in false and misleading marketing schemes at a time when the company was under the strict obligations of a 2010 federal “corporate integrity agreement” resulting from prior allegations of Medicaid fraud. The federal agreement prohibited Astra Zeneca from promoting its antipsychotic medication Seroquel and cholesterol-lowering statin drug Crestor for uses not approved by the FDA, but Texas alleged the company continued to do so anyway. Such illegal pharmaceutical promotion is commonly referred to as “off-label marketing.”

AstraZeneca allegedly promoted its powerful and potentially dangerous antipsychotic drug to Texas Medicaid providers, who primarily treated children and adolescents when those drugs were not approved as safe and effective for use in that vulnerable population. Attorney General Paxton’s office accused AstraZeneca of making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal payments to two former state hospital doctors to unduly influence the use of Seroquel in the state hospital system.

The company was also accused of a similar nationwide marketing fraud scheme involving Crestor, including allegations that AstraZeneca executed a plan of deception targeted directly at Texas Medicaid to expand the use of the statin beyond what the science supported, while downplaying a significant risk of diabetes in certain patients.

“Texas leads the country in protecting its Medicaid system from pharmaceutical fraud,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The allegations that led to this settlement are especially disturbing because the well-being of children and the integrity of the state hospital system were jeopardized. The cooperation and support of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission was essential in achieving this outstanding outcome for Texans.”

The settlements are the culmination of litigation by Attorney General Paxton’s Civil Medicaid Fraud Division. Former Astra Zeneca employees provided the initial information to the attorney general’s office under the whistleblower provisions of the Texas Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act. Since 2000, the attorney general’s office has recovered more than $1.8 billion for taxpayers under the Act.

To view a copy of the Crestor settlement agreement, click here: https://bit.ly/2LZjqpC
To view a copy of the Seroquel settlement agreement, click here: https://bit.ly/2M1EH24

AG Paxton Continues Pressing for DACA Phase Out in U.S. District Court

AUSTIN – Leading a 10-state coalition, Attorney General Ken Paxton today filed a response brief in U.S. District Court in advance of Wednesday’s hearing where the states seek to end the unlawful Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Among other points, the brief corrects misrepresentations made in a business coalition’s brief opposing the lawsuit.

The Texas Association of Business and others falsely claimed in their amicus brief that the DACA lawsuit seeks deportation of all DACA recipients. In his response brief, Attorney General Paxton, however, again points out that the lawsuit in fact asks the court to halt new applications and renewals while the case proceeds, and does not call for revoking existing DACA status for those who already have a two-year permit.

“DACA is unconstitutional because it rewrote federal law without congressional approval,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Our lawsuit asks the court to prevent future illegal actions, restore the rule of law to our immigration system, and provide Congress with an opportunity to finally address the issue.”

Attorney General Paxton’s standing arguments in the DACA lawsuit are actually bolstered by the business coalition’s brief. Their brief admits DACA deprives some citizens (or lawfully-present workers) of jobs, does not dispute that the program is illegal, and does not dispute that DACA costs Texas and other states vast sums of money for health care, education and law enforcement services.

Attorney General Paxton leads a coalition that now represents 10 states in a lawsuit against the federal government to end DACA, which granted lawful presence and work permits to nearly one million unlawfully present aliens without congressional approval. Siding with Texas, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would not defend DACA, calling the program “unlawful” and “an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws.”

Texas is joined on today’s response brief by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, South Carolina and West Virginia, along with the governors of Maine and Mississippi.

View a copy of the response brief here: https://bit.ly/2MeNSrL
View a copy of the lawsuit here: https://bit.ly/2JKjh3P
View a copy of the motion seeking a nationwide injunction here: https://bit.ly/2KumAgE

Request For Opinion: Whether a groundwater conservation district may define “agricultural crop” as “food or fiber commodities grown for resale of commercial purposes that provide food, clothing, or animal feed” and utilize that definition to determine the applicable fee rate for “irrigating agricultural crops”

RQ-0241-KP

Visit: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/opinions/51paxton/rq/2018/pdf/RQ0241KP.pdf

Received: Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Re: Whether a groundwater conservation district may define “agricultural crop” as “food or fiber commodities grown for resale of commercial purposes that provide food, clothing, or animal feed” and utilize that definition to determine the applicable fee rate for “irrigating agricultural crops”

Requestor: The Honorable Charles Schwertner
Chair, Committee on Health and Human Services
Texas State Senate
Post Office Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711-2068