If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s been a cornerstone of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s legal strategy in court when combating foes of all stripes—socialists in Washington, tyrants on local school boards, and now, a state court filled entirely with Republican judges.
After the state’s Criminal Court of Appeals—the highest court for criminal cases—axed Paxton’s power to unilaterally prosecute alleged election crimes in December, the embattled lawman responded by stoking the fury of the GOP ranks.
Typically a sleepy outpost in the world of Texas politics, the high criminal court now finds itself a target of the party’s increasingly rabid crusade for “election integrity.” Eight of the nine judges—all of whom are Republicans—signed onto the decision. The ruling overturned a provision of state law granting the attorney general unilateral power to prosecute alleged voter fraud because, the judges said, it violated the state constitution’s separation of powers. The attorney general can still prosecute such cases with permission from local prosecutors.
