Attorney General Ken Paxton led a 12-state coalition to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to ban all uses of Chrysotile Asbestos. In doing so, EPA relies on old and often obsolete data to reach its sweeping conclusion to ban the substance, and ignores scientific, economic, legal, and constitutional considerations that cut in the opposite direction. EPA’s decision rests on bad science and will adversely affect Americans’ drinking water, as well as the plastic, […]
Ken Paxton
Paxton Sues Biden Admin Over Its Efforts to Force Abortions in Texas
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding their use of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) to require hospitals to perform abortions. This latest unlawful action by the Biden Administration comes in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade and the subsequent triggering of Texas’s abortion ban. By this move, the Biden Administration seeks to […]
AG Paxton Leads Coalition Challenging Court’s Decision Eroding Constitutional Separation of Powers, Federalism Concerns
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led an 18-state coalition amicus brief in support of Utah’s challenge in the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, opposing a court order requiring Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes to sit for an hours-long oral deposition about an employment dispute. The legal issue implicates significant separation-of-powers and federalism concerns. “The lower court is attempting to force the deposition “even though the court acknowledged that General […]
AG Paxton Asks Court to Rehear Decision Giving One State Power to Regulate Other States’ Climate Policies
AUSTIN –Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined an Indiana-led multistate amicus brief urging an en banc rehearing of a decision by the Boston-based U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals that threatens to allow one state—Rhode Island—to effectively set other states’ climate policies. “Permitting 50 different state judiciaries to set global emissions standards would lead to utter chaos,” the brief reads. “The [Clean Air Act] does not authorize a single state’s courts to set national emissions standards. It merely transfers […]
Paxton Joins Coalition to Protect Students’ Religious Liberty
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a multistate coalition led by Montana in support of religious liberty in Fellowship of Christian Athletes v. San Jose Unified School District, in the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In this case, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) allows all students to attend meetings, but requires leadership to affirm statements of faith, which includes traditional views on marriage. As a result, in 2019, […]
AG Paxton Joins Amicus Brief Supporting Alabama Law Prohibiting “Transgender” Procedures on Children
AUSTIN – Attorney General Paxton joined an Arkansas-led amicus brief filed in the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit supporting Alabama’s appeal of the district court’s injunction of the state’s Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act. The Act, which the brief sets out to defend, prohibits the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery to medically “transition” children and adolescents. “The Amici States . . . are concerned by the surge of gender-related psychological issues among adolescents (especially girls) and […]
AG Paxton Pushes Back Against Court Decision Threatening Religious Liberty
AUSTIN –Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined an Oklahoma-led multistate amicus brief urging an en banc rehearing of a decision by the Denver-based U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals that threatens the freedom of religious groups to select their own leaders and operate free from the entanglements of government overregulation. In that case, a faith-based K-12 religious school fired a chaplain who sued to challenge his termination. Typically, a court will decide preliminarily, and as […]
AG Paxton Fights EPA Over Unconstitutional Regulation of Power Plants
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote a letter to Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding its Federal Implementation Plan addressing regional ozone transport for the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard. The EPA proposes fossil fuel-fired power plants in 25 states to participate in an allowance-based ozone program beginning in 2023, among other requirements. They are also proposing nitrogen oxide emissions limitations on certain other industrial stationary sources in 23 states, all […]
AG Paxton Asks Court to Rehear Decision Giving One State Power to Regulate Other States’ Climate Policies
AUSTIN –Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined an Indiana-led multistate amicus brief urging an en banc rehearing of a decision by the Boston-based U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals that threatens to allow one state—Rhode Island—to effectively set other states’ climate policies. “Permitting 50 different state judiciaries to set global emissions standards would lead to utter chaos,” the brief reads. “The [Clean Air Act] does not authorize a single state’s courts to set national emissions standards. It merely transfers […]
AG Paxton Pushes Back Against Court Decision Threatening Religious Liberty
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined an Oklahoma-led multistate amicus brief urging an en banc rehearing of a decision by the Denver-based U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals that threatens the freedom of religious groups to select their own leaders and operate free from the entanglements of government overregulation. In that case, a faith-based K-12 religious school fired a chaplain who sued to challenge his termination. Typically, a court will decide preliminarily, and as a […]