Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who was the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton won elections for state law enforcement work in November 2014 as a champion of the Tea Party movement and conservative principles.
For two years starting January 2013, Paxton is a member of the Texas Senate Republican representing District 8, which covers the west-central part of Collin County in northern Dallas and several parts of the surrounding city like Allen, Frisco, and McKinney. From 2003 to 2013, Paxton represents District 70 in the Texas House of Representatives.
In his capacity as state attorney general, Paxton has sued the federal government on the orders of immigration executives, Labor Department decisions, and environmental regulations. He has taken legal action against the state and local entities concerning the First Amendment and the Second Amendment of property rights and taxes.
In July 2015, after complaints by investors Joel Hochberg and Byron Cook, a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, Paxton was charged by the Texas jury for alleged securities fraud crimes and failed to register well with the state securities board of Texas. Paxton has pleaded not guilty, calling politically motivated allegations. In April 2016, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a civil suit related to the Federal against Paxton; in March 2017, US District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III dismissed the SEC case "with prejudice," deciding that Paxton has no "legal obligation to disclose compensation arrangements with investors."
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Paxton was born with complications from her mother's pregnancy in Minot, North Dakota. The placenta rushes in front of her to the birth canal, and her mother has to wait more than an hour to get the surgeon to free her. Paxton seniors are in the United States Air Force, and their spouses and three children live in a trailer, often without air conditioning, parking outside the air base or on the beach wherever the father is stationed. At various times, they live in Florida, New York, North Carolina, California, and Oklahoma. As a young man, he wanted to play football, but his father did not let him play for fear of injury. As a lifelong football fan, Paxton carries a jersey signed by Bill Bates, a former Dallas Cowboys. Bates was later named as Paxton's campaign treasurer.
At the age of twelve, Paxton almost lost his eyes in the game of hide and seek; misdiagnosis causes long-term problems with his vision. As a result, his good eye is green; That is broken, brown and moody. He was again badly injured when he was a student at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Elbow into his face in a basketball game destroys the bone around his damaged right eye. At Baylor, he majored in psychology and became a member of the Baylor University Chamber of Commerce. In 1985, he was elected Chairman of the Student Association of Baylor Student Government.
Paxton received his psychology degree in 1985 and continued his education at Bayank Hankamer School of Business, earning his Master of Business Administration in 1986. Paxton then worked for two years as a management consultant before returning to school in 1988. He enrolled at the University of Virginia Law School in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in 1991 won the Juris Doctor degree.
Paxton then joined the firm Strasburger & amp; Price, L.L.P, where he worked from 1991 to 1995. He then worked for J.C. Penney Company, Inc., as an in-house legal counsel. In 2002, he left J.C. Penney to start his own company that specializes in residential planning, estate, real estate, and general business, and to run in Texas House District 70.
A resident of McKinney, Texas, Paxton serves or has served in many local organizations and councils. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce at Allen, Frisco, and McKinney. He is the director of Centennial Medical Center. He is a member and former director of the Collin County Bar Association, a member of Dallas Housing Planning Board, a director at Marketplace Ministries, and a Rotary International member at McKinney. Paxton is a member of the nondenominational Stonebriar Community Church charter in Frisco, founded in 1998 by senior pastor Chuck Swindoll.
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Texas House of Representatives
Selection
2002
On March 12, 2002, Paxton ran for his first Republican nomination for the Texas House in District 70 against five opponents. He won 39.45% of the vote and moved into a runoff with Bill Vitz, who he later defeated with 64% of the vote. He then faces Fred Lusk (D) and Robert Worthington (left) for the newly opened open seat. On November 4, 2002, Paxton secured his first victory with 28,012 votes for 7,074 Lusk votes and 300 Worthington votes.
2004
On November 4, 2004, Paxton faced a challenge from Democrat Martin Woodward after walking unchallenged for the Republican nomination. Paxton captured 76% of the vote, or 58,520 votes compared to 18,451 votes for Woodward.
2006
On November 4, 2006, Paxton won his third term in the Texas Representative Council, defeating Rick Koster (D) and Robert Virasin (L). Paxton received 30,062 votes for 12,265 Koster votes and 1,222 votes from Virasin.
2008
On 4 November 2008, Paxton won the re-election of the House by again defeating Robert Virasin (L), 73,450 to 11,751 votes.
2010
Paxton ran without a fight for re-election in both major Republican and general elections in 2010. On November 11, 2010, entering his last term as a state representative, Paxton announced that he would run for the seat of Texas Representative Council against Joe Straus of District 121 in Bexar County and fellow Republican Warren Chisum of District 88 in Pampa, Texas. Paxton said:
On Election Day [2010], we witnessed a monumental shift in the political climate, and I believe that historic opportunity demands courageous action in defense of our conservative values. Voters throughout Texas send a clear message that they support dedicated leadership to protect our freedom and fight government growth. The Texans gave us a historic mandate, and they expect us to use this mandate to honestly promote the conservative principles and not just protect the status quo. These goals can only be achieved with a conservative Speaker.
Feeling a certain defeat, Paxton withdrew from the Speaker race before voting.
Straus was elected for a second term as Speaker and re-elected in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
Tenure
Political action committee
Paxton is one of six Texas House candidates supported by HuckPAC, the official political action committee Mike Huckabee.
Paxton received the support and ratings of "A" from the National Rifle Association and its affiliate, the Texas State Rifle Association.
Previous committee assignments
- Land & amp; Resource Management Committee, Texas House
- How & amp; Committee on Means, Texas House
- Fiscal Stability, Texas House
Texas State Senate
Paxton was elected to the Texas State Senate in 2012, and served for two years, until January 2015, when his term as Attorney General began.
Texas Attorney General
2014 elections
Paxton became a candidate for Texas attorney general when petahana Greg Abbott decided to run for governor to replace retired Rick Perry.
Paxton leads the field of three candidates in the Republican primary held on March 4, 2014, polling 566,114 votes (44.4%). Country Representatives and Dallas County Branch received 426,595 votes (33.5 percent). Eliminated at primary is Texas Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman of Austin, which surveyed the remaining 281,064 (22.1 percent).
Paxton faced Dan Branch in the second round of elections on May 27, 2014, and won by 465,395 votes (63.63 percent). Branches received 265,963 votes (36.36 percent).
In the November 4 election, Paxton defeated a Houston Democratic lawyer named Sam Houston.
Paxton took office on 5 January 2015. The Paxton campaign collected $ 945,000 in the first half of 2016, leaving Paxton for just under $ 3 million in its campaign account for a possible 2018 re-election bid.
Paxton's wife, Angela, her closest political adviser, often opens her show with musical performances. She calls her husband "a very competitive person".
Paxton won the election of the attorney general without the support of a Texas newspaper. He generally avoided reporters, most of whom he considered biased toward him.
Ownership
Immigration
Obama's executive order
Paxton leads a coalition of 26 nations challenging President Barack Obama's Postponement Action for Parents of Americans and Legitimate Permanent Residents (DAPA) executive actions. According to The New York Times , Obama's executive actions "will protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation and allow them to work unlimitedly in the country legally." Paxton argues that the president should not be allowed to "unilaterally rewrite congressional law and avoid representatives of the people." The Supreme Court heard of this case, United States v. Texas and issued a 4-4 rupture in this case in June 2016. Due to a separate ruling, a low court ruling by 2015 that annulled Obama's plan was left on the spot. In July 2017, Paxton led a group of Republic Attorney General and Governor Idaho Butch Otter threatened Donald J. Trump's government that they would sue if the president did not end the Postponed policy for Children that had been enacted by President Barack Obama. Other attorneys who joined in making threats against Trump include Steve Marshall of Alabama, Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas, Lawrence Wasden of Idaho, Derek Schmidt of Kansas, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Doug Peterson of Nebraska, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and Patrick Morrisey from West Virginia. Trump executive order
In 2017, Paxton voiced support for the adoption of leading domains to gain rights-of-way along the Rio Grande in Texas for the construction of a border wall supported by President Donald Trump as a means of reducing illegal immigration. Paxton said that private landowners should receive a fair price when property is taken for pending construction. He says that the wall serves "the public purpose of providing salvation to people not only along the border, but to the whole nation.... I want people to be treated fairly, so they should not just take their land from them," But there should be compensation only.
In 2017, Paxton joins thirteen other state prosecutors in filing a friend-of-the-court briefing to defend Trump's first and second executive orders about travel and immigration. In a filing in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and the US Supreme Court, Paxton argued that the order - which places a 90-day ban on visa issuance to travel from six predominantly Muslim-majority countries, on refugee acceptance to the United States, and limiting annual refugee acceptance to 50,000 people - constitutionally and legally valid.
In May 2017, Paxton filed a preemptive suit designed to ensure the constitutionality of a new Texas ban in holy cities, known as SB 4, signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott. The lawsuit asked the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas to clarify whether the law is contrary to the Fourth and Fourteenth constitutional amendments or not contradict some other federal laws. Paxton said the move "is a constitutional, lawful and important step in securing our borders, which ensures federal, state and local law enforcement cooperation to protect Texas troops, but some towns and law enforcement agencies are unwilling to cooperate with governments federal and claimed that SB 4 was unconstitutional. "Among those opposed to such action were police chiefs and sheriffs from some of the largest jurisdictions in Texas. Critics call the prohibition on legalizing discrimination against minorities, and in accordance with the law expected to be filed.
Challenges for Power Plans
Paxton has put forward a legal challenge to the Clean Power Plans, which is President Obama's "President by the State" effort to combat climate change by switching from coal to cleaner natural gas and renewable resources. Paxton says the Environmental Protection Agency is trying to "force Texas to change the way we organize energy production" through an unprecedented "extension of federal authority". The Clean Power Plan would require Texas to slash an average of 51 million tons of annual emissions, down 21 percent from the 2012 level. Paxton said the necessary reductions would hurt state jobs, curb excessive electricity costs, and threaten reliability in the power grid. Paxton said there was no evidence that the plan would reduce climate change, and that the EPA does not have the legal authority to write state policies.
Challenges to overtime regulations Ministry of Labor
Paxton demanded the Obama administration over the new rules by the US Department of Labor that would make five million additional workers eligible to pay overtime. The new rules will mean workers earning a $ 47,500 annual salary will be eligible to pay overtime when working more than 40 hours per week. Paxton said the new regulation "could cause catastrophic consequences for our economy." Along with Texas, twenty other countries have joined the lawsuit.
LGBT issues
In June 2015, following the issuance of the decision Obergefell v. Hodges , in which the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, Paxton issued a statement that offered moral support for employees with religious objections to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples. His statement said in part that "many lawyers are ready to help clerks defend their religious beliefs, in many cases on a pro-bono basis, and I will do everything I get from this office to be a public voice for those who defend them right."
in 2016, Paxton led a coalition of thirteen states requesting an order to block guidance letters issued by the US Department of Education and the US Department of Justice who interpret Title IX to require public schools to allow transgendered students to use toilets equipped with their gender identities. Paxton wrote in court filings that the Obama administration has "conspired to change workplace and educational settings across the country into laboratories for large social experiments" and calls the directive a "weapon to the head" that threatens school district independence. The countries dropped the lawsuit after the directive was revoked by President Donald Trump.
Challenges to the "Labor Ruling" Department
Paxton is involved in legal challenges to a rule by the Department of Labor which forces employers to report any "action, behavior or communication" committed to "influence employee decisions regarding its collective representation or collective bargaining rights." Known as the "Persuasion Regulation", the new regulation came into effect in April 2016. Opponents of the rules say that it will prevent employers from talking about labor issues or seeking legal counsel. In June 2016, a federal judge gave an initial order to the rule. Paxton called the command "a victory for the preservation of the sanctity of lawyer-client secrecy."
ExxonMobil Litigation
By 2016, Paxton is one of the country's 11 state attorneys general who sided with ExxonMobil in a corporate lawsuit to block a climate change investigation by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Paxton and other states filed a brief amicus curiae report, stating that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey used his office to "tip into public policy debates, undermine the first Amendment and abuse office court powers." Healey has launched an ExxonMobil historical marketing investigation and sales of fossil fuel products, which require companies to produce 40-year documents on fossil fuel and securities products. Healey said the documents would prove that ExxonMobil "knew about climate change risks a few decades ago and fraudulently hides the knowledge from the public." Amicus's writing supports Exxon Mobil's motion for a preliminary court order. Paxton questioned the use of Heale's law enforcement authorities on the controversy over global warming, which he called "an ongoing public policy debate on international interests." Paxton describes Healey's attempt to get historical company records for public policy debates as a threat to freedom of speech, stating: "The constitution was written to protect citizens from government hunting which is nothing more than an attempt to suppress public speech on a matter of public interest simply because government officials occur to disagree with a particular point of view. "Brief explanations describe climate change as an issue that remains a scientific debate, although in reality the scientific consensus is that the earth is heating up and human activity is primarily responsible.
Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker has also issued a court summons for Exxon notes. Paxton issued a request to intervene in the case, stating: "What is an Exxon Mobil violation? Holding a view of climate change that the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands disagreed on is about criminalizing speech and thought." Walker canceled a subpoena in June 2016.
Volkswagen, Apple, and MoneyGram lawsuits
In 2012, Paxton was part of a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of violating antitrust laws by conspiring with publishers to artificially raise the price of electronic books. Apple was ordered to pay $ 400 million to US consumers who paid artificially inflated prices for e-books, and $ 20 million to the state for reimbursement of legal costs.
In June 2016, it was announced that Volkswagen would pay the state of Texas $ 50 million in relation to the Volkswagen emission scandal. Paxton has sued the company in 2015 in connection with the use of software allowed by operators that allow its vehicles to avoid the emission limits.
Paxton is part of a 21-state lawsuit against the state of Delaware. The lawsuit alleges that MoneyGram provided unchecked checks to the state of Delaware instead of the country where order money or traveler's checks were purchased. The case was immediately sent to the US Supreme Court due to inter-state disputes. Paxton said the audit showed that Delaware owed $ 150 million to another country, and that Delaware illegally took over an uncovered check instead of sending a check back to the state where the money order was purchased. The state of Delaware denies this claim.
Lawsuit on homepage tax exemption
By 2015, the Texas State Legislature passed a law applying a property tax reduction by increasing the homestead release to $ 25,000 and banning locality to reduce or cancel the release of any local homesteads that are already in the books. After the law was enacted, 21 school districts reduced or abolished the liberation of their chosen local homestead. In 2016, Paxton intervened in a lawsuit that challenged school district practices to reduce or cancel the release of their optional local guest house.
Second Change Amendment
By 2016, three University of Texas professors in Austin are sued in an attempt to ban hidden pistols from campus. The law of bringing the state campus allows law-abiding citizens to carry hidden weapons. The lawsuit brought by professors seeks to block the law. Paxton called the lawsuit "reckless" and said it should be dismissed.
In 2016, Paxton sued the city of Austin to allow licensees to openly carry a pistol at the town hall.
Electoral fraud
Paxton has been "against voter fraud" as state attorney general; there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Texas, although "state efforts to enact and enforce the country's strictest voter ID law are severely disrupted by inadequate postponement, revision, judicial intervention and education that voting in the 2016 election is sure problematic. "The Paxton office is looking for a Texas 2016 ballot record in an attempt to find voter fraud, such as potential voting by non-citizens or on behalf of the deceased. This includes individual voice history and application materials for voter registration. Officials in Bexar County say there are no major cases of voter fraud in San Antonio. However, the Associated Press reported that election officials in Bexar County estimated that nearly six hundred written statements filed by voters there who refused to show identification should be rejected. Instead, the official said such voters should be asked to provide a temporary ballot. The AP projected that the total number of throw statements is not true as 13,500 in the largest Texas region. Fort Bend County election officials say that these cases are not voter fraud, noting that only those registered to vote eligible for written statements, and that "poll workers are trained to" err on the side of letting people use affidavits instead deny them a chance to vote. '"
The San Antonio Express-News criticized the state's voter identification laws, which Paxton sought to recover after being beaten by US District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Corpus Christ, who found the measure to be a violation of the Rights Act Select it, and find that it was escaped with a view to discriminating black and Hispanic voters. The Paxton Office appealed the decision. Appeals continue in this case.
In March 2017, Paxton told The Washington Times that he was convinced that voter fraud was in Texas: "I know this is a problem because I overcame it." We just got the conviction over the illegal picking in an election. "Paxton said that Texas election officials are not wary of detecting fraud:" They are involved in letting it happen, I guarantee it happens - whatever people say. " Experts state that there is no reliable evidence of widespread voting fraud in the United States, and a Texas study of elections over a decade determines that there are about three fraud cases for every one million votes in the state.
Religion at school
Paxton "often criticizes what he calls anti-Christian discrimination in Texas schools." In 2015, Paxton opposes the legal actions of atheistic groups seeking to stop the reading of religious prayers before the school board meeting. In December 2016, Paxton received attention after an intervention in a dispute in Killeen, Texas, where a high school principal told a nursing assistant to pick up a six-foot poster at school containing quotes from Christian scriptures. Paxton sided with the adjutant, who won in court.
In early 2017, Paxton objected to the use of a Texas school for an empty classroom to allow its Muslim students to pray, issued a press release claiming that "the high school prayer room is... apparently excluding students from other faiths." The school official said that Paxton never asked them about this statement, and that the room was a reserve room used by faculty and non-Muslim students and for activities, from paper to Buddhist meditation. Frisco Independent School District Supervisor, in a letter sent in response to Paxton, called the press release "a publicity stunt by the [Attorney General's Office] to politicize a non-business organization."
Congress district
Paxton has defended the State of Texas in a federal lawsuit involving images of the Texas congress district. In 2017, a panel of three US federal court judges based in San Antonio ruled that the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature drew the congressional district to discriminate against minority voters, and ordered the reorganization of the 35th and 27th congress districts of Texas. Paxton appealed the verdict, stating that the previous maps were valid, and vowed to "aggressively defend the map on all fronts"; US representative Lloyd Doggett criticized the call as "desperate and highly questionable Paxton-Abbott maneuver" comes "after another decision against the state of Texas for deliberate discrimination."
Other issues
In April 2017, Paxton gave a legal opinion in a dispute between Texas House and Senate about how to close the deferred revenue gap of $ 2.5 billion. He argues that the Senate's proposal to delay the payment of transport debt is likely to be determined in court to be constitutional. State Senator Jane Nelson of Flower Mound asked for Paxton's opinion. The house, however, did not budge. Chairman of the House Allocation Committee John Zerwas from Richmond said that there must be another way to finance the budget without "spending twice as much money from the state highway fund." Speaker Joe Straus from San Antonio compared the Senate proposal with an accounting trick like the one done by Enron Corporation of Houston who died.
Securities litigation
Cost of state-fraud securities
On July 28, 2015, the state grand jury indicted Paxton for three criminal charges: two counts of securities fraud and one count of failing to register with a state securities regulator (third-level crime). The Paxton indictment marks the first criminal prosecution such as the Texas Attorney General in 32 years since the Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox was indicted for bribery in 1983. Complainants in this case were investors Joel Hochberg and Byron Cook, Republican members of the Texas House of Representatives. Paxton and Cook, former friends and roommates while serving together at Texas House, became political enemies when Paxton staked conservative political position while Cook was moderate. While at the Texas House, Cook and Paxton are involved in various joint investment deals. Complaints about Servergy were filed four years after the business deal was made. Three special prosecutors are leading state cases.
On 3 August 2015, after the grand jury's dismissal, Paxton was arrested and booked. He pleaded not guilty, and has described "the case against him as a political hunt."
The prosecutor alleges Paxton, when he was a state legislator, advised investors to finance Mowery Capital Management and Servergy technology companies without revealing that he was paid by the company. Paxton allegedly raised $ 840,000 from investors in Servergy without doing due diligence over false corporate claims that its computer servers were very energy efficient or had made mass sales. Paxton allegedly requested this investment from his legal client, his legislative partner, and his friends, with funding from Paxton and investment club Cook that make up 25% of all investments that Servergy received in 2011. Paxton said he did not receive compensation, and that 100,000 shares of the company he received from the founder of Servergy was a gift.
Paxton unsuccessfully tried to cancel the charges. This challenge was rejected by a court judge, Texas Court of Appeal, and Texas Court of Appeal Court, Texas criminal court of last resort.
In March 2017, District Judge George Gallagher, a Republican from Fort Worth, granted the prosecutor's demands for a change of venue, moving the trial to Houston. Gallagher also denied Paxton's motion to dismiss any of the charges against him because of problems that arose about the grand jury. On May 30, 2017, the 5th Texas Court of Appeals agreed with Paxton that the transfer of the Paxton experiment to Houston required the assignment of the case to a new judge to replace Judge Gallagher and all orders issued by Judge Gallagher after the change of venue. void. The new judge Paxton is Democrat Robert Johnson of the 177 District Court in Harris County. Johnson was chosen at random to lead.
The Paxton court was set for December 2017, but in October 2017, the trial was postponed for the third time. A new trial date is yet to be scheduled, but is likely to take place in 2018.
Ignorance of a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint with prejudice
On April 11, 2016, the US Securities and Commerce Commission filed a law enforcement action against Paxton in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. SEC Complaints specifically prosecute Paxton by violating various provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and various provisions (including Rule 10b-5) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by tricking the Servergy investors. Paxton denied the allegations. One of the defendants and Servergy himself reached a separate settlement with the SEC, agreeing to pay a $ 260,000 fine.
On October 7, 2016, US District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III conditionally dismissed allegations of SEC's civil fraud, finding that the SEC did not accuse Paxton of having a legal obligation to inform investors that he received a commission and grant the SEC two weeks to recharge on new charges. Mazzant said that the SEC is trying to include "square pegs into round holes."
On October 22, 2016, the SEC purified its securities fraud claim against Paxton. The SEC makes additional allegations that the investment club Paxton and Cook require all its members to accept the same risk on all investments and that specifically prohibits members from making money from other members' investments. The SEC further alleges that Paxton did not properly disclose Severgy's ownership of his taxes and that he tried to hide shares at different times by claiming that it was his payment for legal services, that it was a gift, and that he only accepted after investing money. Cook then retreated on this claim, undermining the SEC case against Paxton, when Cook's lawyers admitted that there had never been a "formal investment group" involving Cook and Paxton, but rather "an ad hoc arrangement in which, over time, invest in the same transaction "with certain participants vary from transaction to transaction.
On March 2, 2017, Mazzant dismissed a case of civil securities fraud against Paxton for the second time on the grounds that the attorney general "had no reasonable legal obligation" to inform investors that he would get a commission if they bought shares in a technical firm that Paxton represented. With the dismissal of both cases with prejudice, the SEC can not bring new action on the same claim against Paxton. The dismissal of the SEC case has no direct impact on state criminal cases, which are pending.
Electoral history
References
External links
- The Texas Attorney General's website
- Ken Paxton's website
- Profile in Project Vote Smart
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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