Attorney General Ken Paxton
Attorney General Paxton has secured another major victory for election integrity after the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion in favor of Paxton and a Texas law aimed at securing our elections.
The law in question, S.B. 1111, was duly enacted in the 2021 regular session, but liberal groups sued the state of Texas to prevent the law from taking effect. The law bolsters election security by ensuring that no citizen manipulates residency laws to unfairly alter elections in localities where they don’t actually live.
It also prevents Individuals from misleading the State of Texas by requiring any citizen listing as their address a commercial P.O. box, or any other non-physical location, to provide proper documentation of a physical residency. As pointed out by Texas in its briefing and cited by the Court, the primary aim of S.B. 1111 is to enact a “fundamental state policy . . . that people should vote where they live.”
After a district court ruled that the liberal organizations suing over the law had standing to bring the lawsuit and entered summary judgment in their favor, Attorney General Paxton appealed the decision.
Attorney General Paxton won the appeal with the Fifth Circuit, which concluded its written opinion by reversing the district court’s decision: “In sum, the district court erred in concluding Plaintiffs had organizational standing based on a chilled-speech theory. Because Plaintiffs lack standing, the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. We therefore REVERSE the district court’s judgment and RENDER judgment dismissing Plaintiffs’ claims.”
To read the full opinion, click here.
