If you sit down and talk with Republicans,
which I advise against doing,
you will notice that they justify nearly every one of their awful policies with a call to states’ rights.
They say they want to take power away from national representatives in Washington, D.C., and redistribute it to state and local governments,
which, they claim, are best equipped to determine the best policies for their constituents’ particular, parochial concerns.
They use this appeal to “federalism” to shield them from moral accountability for their disastrous actions.
Republicans will say, for instance, that their intention is not to take away abortion rights but merely to let the states decide when a person can be forced to give birth against their will.
They are lying, of course.
We know this because whenever Republicans get the power to impose their views by national fiat, they happily do so, states’ rights be damned.
Republicans are for local control right up until a local prosecutor declines to deport an immigrant or a city council decides to ban assault weapons.
Still, “states’ rights” remains their battle cry,
and few things expose the full measure of their antipathy toward democratic norms and civil rights than what they do with the power they’ve given to the states.
Most people are aware of the horrors that await when Republicans take control of statehouses and governors’ mansions.
For recent examples, consider Greg Abbott’s murder moat in Texas, or Glenn Youngkin’s crusade against abortion rights and Pornhub in Virginia.
Fewer, however, recognize the horrors that lie in store when Republicans commandeer the machinery of the law.
Put simply, whichever rights the Supreme Court does not succeed in obliterating, Republican-controlled state courts and Republican attorneys general eagerly chisel away, state by state.
They are the people who, under their own authority, can bend the law to their will and weaponize it against vulnerable communities.
There are currently 27 of them, and they include future Newsmax hosts like
Kansas AG Kris #Kobach, who finds his joy in suing to stop Joe Biden’s student debt relief program;
Florida AG Ashley #Moody, who spends her days fighting whatever “wokeness” conspiracy exists in her head at any given moment;
and Texas AG Ken #Paxton, who has effectively decided to make up his own immigration laws and enforce them at the point of a gun.
Republicans realized long ago that state AGs represent the steel gauntlet inside the velvet glove of states’ rights.
They also realized that they needed an organization to help them make that vision real,
so in 1999 they created one: the
💥Republican Attorneys General Association.💥
Much like the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee or any number of partisan-affiliated outfits, #RAGA identifies candidates, supports their efforts to win elections, and imposes national Republican priorities at the state level
—though that’s far from all it does.
The association sees its mission as “Defending the Rule of Law. Keeping America Safe”
and hails itself as “America’s last line of defense.”
You’d think that means keeping states safe from criminals and fraudsters,
but in most cases RAGA AGs think they’re “defending” us from transgender kids who need to use the bathroom or Uber drivers who take people across state lines to get abortions.
RAGA prosecutors share a hatred of reproductive rights, a love of guns, and an obsession with persecuting the LGBTQ community.
You probably didn’t need me to tell you that, though:
Hating women and gay people while using a .450 Bushmaster as a masculinity supplement when the testicle tanning wears off is simply standard GOP operating procedure these days.
But RAGA AGs are also committed to doing the dirty work for every other hellish Republican policy idea,
from destroying the environment to gutting voting rights to undermining vaccines, because apparently states need “defending” from science, facts, and public health.
No matter what awful thing they’re doing, the AGs always have enough money to do it.
In exchange for this largesse, these corporations get more than one-off lawsuits or the occasional friendly AG.
Beyond backing individual officials, RAGA is involved with bigger, broader strategies.
RAGA attorneys general work hand-in-hand with preferred Trump judges to shape our national laws through targeted cases designed for appellate and eventually Supreme Court review.
They make rulings that trigger nationwide injunctions.
In recent months, RAGA AGs in 19 states have asserted their right to get access to the private medical records of patients seeking care out of state
—most likely so they can be prosecuted for receiving an abortion when they come back home.
In 13 states, RAGA AGs have threatened to sue companies over their diversity and inclusion programs.
Most of the time, the law is hiding in shadows, obscured under thick layers of jargon and confusing rules of procedure.
But RAGA attorneys general are not trying to hide the ball. They’re proud of their work.
These people are elected officials (many with ambitions for higher office), so when they menace a vulnerable community, they want you to know about it.
"The Seattle hospital said in a statement that it had 'successfully fought' the 'overreaching demands to obtain confidential patient information.' A judge in Austin dismissed the lawsuit Friday, saying the parties had settled their dispute."
A Texas appeals court has ruled that Republican Attorney General #Ken#Paxton can face discipline from the state bar association over his failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
A disciplinary committee of the State Bar of Texas accused Paxton in 2022 of making false claims of fraud in a lawsuit that questioned President Joe Biden’s victory. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 5th District Court of Appeals said Paxton can be sanctioned by the committee because the lawsuit seeks to punish him in his personal capacity as an attorney and not as a public official.
“The focus of the Commission’s allegations is squarely on Paxton’s alleged misconduct — not that of the State,” Judge Erin Nowell, an elected Democrat, wrote in the 2-1 opinion.
The lone Republican on the panel, Judge Emily Miskel, was in dissent.
NEW: A day after it dismissed the bar case against Sidney Powell, a Dallas appeals court ruled that Attorney General Ken #PAXTONcan face discipline over misrepresentations in his 2020 Texas v. PA Supreme Court filing.
Paxton had argued he was immune.
Unlike the Powell decision, however, there was a dissent here, with one of the three judges agreeing that Paxton should be immune because he filed the 2020 lawsuit in his official capacity. #legal#Texas
The judge in the case, Andrea Beall, asked questions but observed that the agreement had been made between the parties & the court could not block it.
“No judge can force a prosecutor to present evidence or call witnesses. This court does not have any say in this contract,” Judge Beall said before asking #KenPaxton if the signature on the document was his.
🤦🏻♀️Prosecutors on Tuesday announced an agreement with #Texas Attorney General Ken #Paxton that would ultimately dismiss securities fraud charges he has been facing for nearly a decade.
Under the 18-mo pre-trial agreement, special prosecutors in the case would drop 3 felony counts against Paxton. As part of the deal, Paxton must pay full restitution to victims — roughly $300K — & must also complete 100 hours of community service and 15 hours of legal ethics educ.” https://apnews.com/article/9ed5eecc30c1f967ec51f7e58ad9d0af
@phwolfe940 I understand the sentiment here. No one wants state and/or district employees using undue influence of their positions or their state provided emails to send political material . However, why is #Paxton going after the districts instead of the individuals?
A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday ruled that a $1.7 trillion government funding bill was unconstitutionally passed in 2022 through a pandemic-era rule that allowed lawmakers in the House of Representatives to #vote by #proxy rather than in person.
U.S. District Judge James Wesley #Hendrix in Lubbock reached that conclusion as he granted Republican Texas Attorney General Ken #Paxton’s request to block a provision of that bill that gave #pregnant#workers stronger legal protections.
🤦🏻♀️ The attorney general of #Texas on Wednesday defied federal officials who demanded state authorities abandon a public park along the U.S.-#Mexico border that state National Guard soldiers seized last week, setting up a legal showdown with the Biden administration over the country's immigration policies.
Weird how the republicans fought against “death panels” that came with Obamacare (supposedly) yet the state of Texas has actually implemented death panels within the courts thanks to Paxton and the republicans #republicans#paxton#deathpanels#abortion#roe#obamacare
"In Paxton’s letter to the hospitals involved in Cox’s case, the attorney general wrote that Gamble was “not medically qualified to make this determination”."
Aren't we lucky that #Paxton is "medically qualified?"
I have been thinking all day about the latest turn of events, about the unbearable situation for Kate Cox, about the disregard of #Paxton and his fellow #Republicans for women's health care and their right to decide over their own body. It makes me sick! People must remember that next November. #VoteBlue has its flaws, but these are minor compared to the despotic future #tRump and the #GOP are planing.