It’s getting real at the Tax Assessor’s office. Harris County election officials got a bit of a surprise Friday morning when they attempted to open the county’s spending account on the Texas Secretary of State’s office website and found their access blocked. State officials have temporarily cut off the county’s voter registration funding. “We received [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Greg Abbott’
More on Texas proving the need for the Voting Rights Act
From the DMN: “There have been growing arguments that the Voting Rights Act is obsolete and should be struck down,” says University of Michigan law professor Ellen Katz, a nationally recognized expert on the Voting Rights Act. “But [Gov.] Rick Perry and the state of Texas, through their overreach in these cases, may have just [...]
Voter registration restrictions back in place
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and AG Greg Abbott remain BFFs. Texas won a stay Thursday of a federal court decision that had barred enforcement of the state’s toughened voter registration law. Attorney General Greg Abbott described the development as a victory for voter integrity. The state had asked the 5th U.S. Court of [...]
The state of Texas has already proven the case for the Voting Rights Act
So as you know, the state of Texas had its rear end handed to it in both the redistricting and voter ID preclearance lawsuits. Both of these rulings will be appealed to the Supreme Court, with the ultimate goal being a constitutional challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which is the provision [...]
AG shuts down bogus charity museum
It’s an extremely rare privilege to point out something of actual positive value done by our Attorney General. The doors will finally close on the Texas Highway Patrol Museum in San Antonio, a charity that raised millions of dollars under the guise that the money would benefit state troopers and their families, yet spent less [...]
Federal court refuses to preclear Texas voter ID bill
Another bad day in court for Texas Republicans. A federal three-judge panel on Thursday blocked the Texas voter ID law passed by the Republican Legislature, saying the new restrictions would place an unfair burden on Latinos, racial minorities and the poor. The ruling by the federal panel is the second blow to Texas in as [...]
Federal court denies preclearance on all redistricting maps
The long-awaited ruling in the preclearance lawsuit by the DC Court
Rick Perry is running for Governor again in 2014
He is until he specifically says he isn’t, anyway. I don’t see any reason to call what we’re seeing otherwise. Gov. Rick Perry has quietly replenished his depleted campaign war chest since he abandoned his presidential bid in January, fueling speculation that the longest-serving governor in Texas history will seek yet another term in 2014. [...]
Fifth Circuit strikes again
Dammit. A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Texas did not act unconstitutionally when it moved to expel Planned Parenthood from a health and contraceptive care program for low-income women. The ruling overturned a preliminary injunction, issued in April by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin, that banned Texas from enforcing rules designed to [...]
“Collateral damage”
How’s that war on women going? In the year since deep cuts to family planning funding took effect, the impact has become apparent. An Observer review of state records has found that 146 clinics have lost state funds, clumped mainly in the Panhandle, Central Texas and on the border with Mexico. More than 60 of [...]
Guess who likes the Obamacare ruling now?
The state of Texas, that’s who. But not for any positive reason, of course. The high court decision limited the power of Congress to force states to take certain actions by threatening to withhold federal money – in the Affordable Care Act case, existing Medicaid funds. Chief Justice John Roberts called the threat “a gun [...]
What will The Dew do next?
So Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst isn’t going anywhere next January. I’m going to put aside the questions of what happened for now and ask instead what happens in 2014? As we know, there are three people running for what they originally thought would be an open seat race for Lite Guv in 2014. What happens [...]
Voter ID trial wraps up
I didn’t follow the day to day reports from the voter ID preclearance trial, mostly because there wasn’t anything in the testimony that was truly unexpected. Lots of numbers, some of questionable provenance, were presented. The state continued to claim that nobody would be prevented from voting, not even the people who don’t have drivers [...]
Voter ID trial, day one
And they’re off, with the state bringing the funny math as part of its case. A Justice Department lawyer, Elizabeth Westfall, argued that the law has the potential to prevent 1.4 million Texans from voting who are eligible but lack the required photo identification — a disproportionate number of them minorities. Previewing the case the [...]
Voter ID trial starts today
Another big lawsuit in a year that’s seen plenty of them. The decades-old legal battle between states’ rights and civil rights returns to a familiar venue – a federal courtroom – on Monday as lawyers for the state of Texas try to convince a panel of judges that the U.S. Justice Department has no legal [...]
Yet another voting-related lawsuit
I had completely forgotten about this. A federal judge in Galveston is to consider motions in a lawsuit filed by a Washington-based voters’ rights group that contends Texas laws make it illegally difficult to register voters. The group Voting for America is seeking an injunction to block enforcement of laws they say keep registration records [...]
Planned Parenthood and Texas back in court
I presume this was the appeal of the injunction that was granted to Planned Parenthood in their lawsuit challenging the state’s attempt to destroy the Women’s Health Program. A federal appeals court will review a new Texas rule that prohibits Planned Parenthood groups from participating in a taxpayer-funded program providing health care and family planning [...]
Don’t talk about 2014!
Greg Abbott continues to not talk about his burning desire to be Governor. When it comes to his political ambitions, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is playing coy. During a campaign stop Tuesday in Helotes, where he endorsed Republican state Rep. John Garza, Abbott again refused to offer any details about his next step — [...]
Abbott gives on legislative privilege
About time. In an effort to move to trial more quickly, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has quietly dropped his opposition to the Department of Justice’s request to take depositions from state lawmakers in the voter identification case. In March, Abbott asked a federal court in Washington to shield 12 state lawmakers from giving depositions [...]
A trio of trial updates
Planned Parenthood versus Texas: A ruling affecting health care, including contraception, for some 130,000 low-income Texas women probably won’t come until late this year as Planned Parenthood and the state of Texas plan for mid-October oral arguments in their legal fight. The state is appealing a preliminary injunction that U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel granted [...]
Is the Amazon deal with the state legal?
The Statesman raises a great question about the settlement deal between Amazon and the state of Texas that will get the online retailer to start collecting sales taxes in Texas while forgiving back taxes the state says it owes. But is it legal? Austin lawyer Buck Wood, a tax attorney and a former deputy comptroller [...]
Bench slaps come in threes
In addition to the tongue lashing they got from the DC Court in the voter ID preclearance trial, the Greg Abbott gang took fire from judges in two other cases recently. Trail Blazers has the highlights. First, some incredulity from the Court of Criminal Appeals: Last Wednesday, Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell tried to convince the [...]
Voter ID trial likely to be delayed
And if it is, it’s all the fault of the State of Texas. In another blow to advocates of Texas’ voter ID law, a federal district court ruled today that the law will likely not be in place by the November general election unless the state turns over requested documents by Wednesday. [...] Late last [...]
Fifth Circuit lifts its stay of Planned Parenthood injunction
Whiplash alert! U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Monday granted a preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthood in the case, saying the state couldn’t bar the group until the lawsuit is decided. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott quickly sought a stay at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The stay was granted by Judge Jerry E. Smith [...]
Texas gets stay of injunction
And just like that, we’re back where we started. Late last night, a federal appeals court judge granted Texas an emergency stay halting Planned Parenthood’s participation in the Women’s Health Program. Justice Jerry Smith of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the stay, lifting at least temporarily an injunction – issued yesterday by [...]
Injunction granted to Planned Parenthood
Good. A federal judge on Monday stopped Texas from preventing Planned Parenthood from getting state funds through the Women’s Health Program. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin ruled there is sufficient evidence that a law banning Planned Parenthood from the program is unconstitutional. He imposed an injunction against enforcing it until he can hear [...]
The other PPP April polls
In addition to their Presidential poll, Public Policy Polling asked about the Senate race and the future of Rick Perry. In their poll of the GOP Senate primary, they see things tightening up. Every time PPP polls Texas the Republican Senate primary gets closer and closer. What was a 29 point lead for David Dewhurst [...]
There’s no point trying to guess what Rick Perry is going to do
Rick Perry does not play by your puny rules. He is not constrained by logic, the greater good, or a sense of shame. If you’re an ambitious Republican politician hoping to move up the food chain, you have two choices: Play by his rules and hope that things work out for you, or don’t play [...]
Planned Parenthood sues Texas
Two can play at that game. Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to block a rule aimed at excluding their health centers from the Medicaid Women’s Health Program. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Austin, asks the court to file a preliminary injunction to block a rule aimed at excluding [...]
Voter ID lawsuit action this week
Tomorrow, the DC Court will hear “oral argument on the State of Texas’ request to block the depositions of 12 Republican legislators who were involved with the voter ID bill, including State Sen. Dan Patrick and state representatives Debbie Riddle and Leo Berman as well as Speaker Joe Straus”. The motion also sought to bar [...]
Abbott is the new KBH
I don’t know how you can write an entire story about Greg Abbott’s political ambitions without stopping to ask the basic question about whether he’ll need to take Rick Perry out in a primary to get what he wants, but Nolan Hicks managed it. Look, you may not believe Rick Perry when he says he’s [...]