Category Archives: Legal matters

Can we finally end Ken Paxton’s egregious court-shopping?

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

File this under “About damn time”, even if it eventually comes to naught. As soon as President Joe Biden entered the White House, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an unprecedented campaign of obstruction to block his agenda in the … Continue reading →

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New Mexico sues its “abortion sanctuary cities”

Posted on January 26, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Good. New Mexico’s top prosecutor on Monday asked the state’s highest court to overturn abortion bans imposed by conservative local governments in the Democratic-run state where the procedure remains legal after Roe v. Wade was struck down. The move comes … Continue reading →

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More on the lawsuit against Paxton’s deranged ballot access opinion

Posted on January 25, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

There are actually three counties suing him, not just the one I had originally noted. At least three Texas counties — Tarrant, Williamson, and Harris — have sued Attorney General Ken Paxton and are asking a judge to strike down a legal … Continue reading →

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HISD in TEA limbo

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

No one knows how long this might take. Houston ISD is in limbo as the Texas Education Agency weighs how to proceed with a possible takeover of the state’s largest school system allowed under a recent Texas Supreme Court ruling. … Continue reading →

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The Chron drops a big Hotze story

Posted on January 20, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Despite the headline, I didn’t find a whole lot of new details of interest here. Most of the new stuff consists of the various unhinged things that Hotze has been saying about elections and how everyone is covering up massive … Continue reading →

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Paxton sued over his deranged ballot access opinion

Posted on January 15, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Good. The Williamson County attorney’s office has sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claiming a ruling he made that gives the public immediate access to ballots after an election violates state law. County officials, the lawsuit said, can be charged … Continue reading →

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SCOTx removes injunction blocking TEA takeover of HISD

Posted on January 14, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know what happens next, but there’s a lot more of this to play out. The Texas Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the state to potentially take control of the Houston Independent School District, which state education … Continue reading →

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SCOTx to decide if ERCOT can be sued

Posted on January 11, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Big decision to come. Lawyers argued before the Texas Supreme Court on Monday over whether the state’s power grid operator should be protected from lawsuits, a question that has become especially important after the deadly February 2021 freeze. Individuals and insurance companies have … Continue reading →

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Lawsuit filed to keep The Former Guy off the 2024 ballot

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Good luck with that. Former president Donald Trump is facing a legal challenge to his 2024 bid for the presidency from a fellow Republican. John Anthony Castro, an attorney from Texas and long-shot candidate for president in 2024, filed the … Continue reading →

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Texas clinics begin compliance with that wingnut anti-birth control court order

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Infuriating but expected. Texas teens will now need their parents’ permission to get birth control at federally funded clinics, following a court ruling late last month. These clinics, funded through a program called Title X, provide free, confidential contraception to … Continue reading →

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Bell County to sue over Killeen’s marijuana ordinance

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Something like this was surely inevitable. Bell County commissioners, along with the district attorney, are determined to settle the question of whether Killeen’s Proposition A is lawful, making the governing body the first in Texas to sue one of its … Continue reading →

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You are now free to busk in Houston

Posted on December 28, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Houston’s anti-busking law has been struck down in federal court. An obscure, decades-old ordinance that restricted where buskers — musicians who performs in public places — can play for tips in Houston has been deemed unconstitutional and struck down by … Continue reading →

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Wingnut Trump judge issues his anti-birth control ruling

Posted on December 23, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

And from here it goes to the Fifth Circuit. Isn’t this fun? A federal court ruling Tuesday may make it nearly impossible for Texas teens to access birth control without their parents’ permission. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled that … Continue reading →

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Texas drops appeal of ruling that forbade banning the sale of handguns to people under 21

Posted on December 22, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Least surprising headline of the week. And month, and year, and pretty much any other arbitrary timeline you choose. Texas will no longer fight to ban 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying handguns in public. A judge ruled earlier this year … Continue reading →

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True the Vote keeps on contempting

Posted on December 19, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the latest filing from the plaintiffs in the defamation lawsuit against True the Vote and their lying grifter principles, Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips. You may recall that Engelbrecht and Phillips spent a few days in the pokey for … Continue reading →

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We said they’d come for birth control next

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

And here they are. Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee to a federal court in Texas, spent much of his career trying to interfere with other people’s sexuality. A former lawyer at a religious conservative litigation shop, Kacsmaryk denounced, in a 2015 article, … Continue reading →

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Hays County DA questions San Marcos marijuana ordinance passed by voters

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Add this to the pile. San Marcos voters passed a marijuana ordinance this November that would halt San Marcos police from arresting people for low-level marijuana offenses. Now, the Hays County district attorney is looking to Texas leaders for their … Continue reading →

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Ken Paxton’s hatred of LGBTQ+ people continues unabated

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Item #1: Texas attorney general’s office sought state data on transgender Texans. Employees at the Texas Department of Public Safety in June received a sweeping request from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office: to compile a list of individuals who … Continue reading →

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Some Harris County courts get Zoom bombed

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Not a story I expected to read this week. Pornographic videos were shown in several Harris County courtrooms Tuesday in what county officials are calling a “Zoom bombing” incident. “Several Harris County Courts at Law experienced zoom bombing — or … Continue reading →

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Judge assigned to hear election loser contest

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox, a press release from Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee: Judge David Peeples will preside over the election contest filed by Republican candidate Erin Lunceford to void the results of her race for the 189th District Court in … Continue reading →

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Gender affirming care is happening in Dallas

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Some good news that I had not been fully aware of. The Dallas doctor who ran the state’s most prominent medical program for transgender youth says she has seen dozens of new patients since crucial court wins this summer and … Continue reading →

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Settlement of the sexual harassment lawsuit against HCC Trustee Glaser on the agenda

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

On the agenda for this Wednesday’s HCC Trustee meeting is this item of interest. Proposed Settlement Authority regarding Southern District of Texas Houston Division, Civil Action 4:21-cv-02216; Patricia Dodd vs. Houston Community College, et al. RECOMMENDATION Authorize the administration to … Continue reading →

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“Heartbeat” lawsuit against doctor dismissed

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I’d forgotten this was still a thing, it had been so long since it was filed. In the first test of the Texas law that empowers private citizens to sue for a minimum of $10,000 in damages over any illegal … Continue reading →

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Beto tries again to get ridiculous defamation lawsuit dismissed

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Hope he has better luck here. The gubernatorial election is over, but Kelcy Warren’s defamation lawsuit against Beto O’Rourke lives on. Warren, the Dallas pipeline tycoon, sued O’Rourke in February over accusations he made on the campaign trail that Warren … Continue reading →

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LULAC files that lawsuit to end Houston City Council At Large districts

Posted on December 6, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve been waiting for this. The League of United Latin American Citizens on Monday filed its long-anticipated lawsuit against the city of Houston, seeking to get rid of at-large City Council seats that it says leave Hispanic residents with insufficient representation at City Hall. … Continue reading →

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Uvalde class action lawsuit over mass shooting officially filed

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

We’ve been waiting for this. Survivors of the fatal mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, have filed a $27 billion class action lawsuit against multiple law enforcement agencies in Texas, according to court documents. The lawsuit, filed … Continue reading →

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Perla Huerta added to migrants’ lawsuit against Ron DeSantis

Posted on December 4, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Noted for the record. A Boston-based law firm suing Florida’s governor for his scheme to transport asylum-seekers from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard under false pretenses has added Perla Huerta — the San Antonio woman accused of recruiting the migrants … Continue reading →

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Justice Department probing RealPage

Posted on December 3, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Possibly good news for renters. The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has opened an investigation into whether rent-setting software made by Richardson-based tech company RealPage is facilitating collusion among landlords, ProPublica reported. The inquiry is being launched as questions have … Continue reading →

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City of Uvalde sues Uvalde County DA

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

What is going on here? The city of Uvalde is suing the local district attorney, accusing her of withholding information an independent investigator needs to conduct an internal affairs investigation of the police response to the Robb Elementary School shooting. … Continue reading →

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Yeah, Deshaun Watson will be back on Sunday

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Unfortunately, his suspension is now over. With nearly all of the more than two dozen lawsuits filed against Deshaun Watson having been settled, most of the women who accused the Cleveland quarterback of sexual misconduct have no interest in his … Continue reading →

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Another lawsuit filed by Uvalde parents

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Another one to watch. The mother of a 10-year-old killed in the Uvalde school shooting has filed a federal lawsuit against the gun-maker and seller, the city of Uvalde, its school district and several law enforcement officers. Sandra Torres’ daughter … Continue reading →

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SCOTx hears firefighter pay parity arguments

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Lots at stake here. More than four years after Houston voters approved a measure that would grant firefighters equal pay with police officers, the legal battle to decide the referendum’s fate landed Tuesday in the hands of the Supreme Court of Texas. The … Continue reading →

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Your periodic reminder that Ken Paxton’s vote fraud claims are bullshit

Posted on November 29, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

A long Chron story that documents the bullshit. The first of the big cases to fizzle was in Gregg County. Prosecutors and local politicians announced an investigation soon after county commissioner candidate Shannon Brown won the March 2018 Precinct 4 … Continue reading →

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Who else can we think of who’s alleged to have violated Texas securities law?

Posted on November 25, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Into every story about cryptocurrency, some amount of absurdity is sure to follow. Texas is investigating celebrities who had endorsed FTX, the now bankrupt cryptocurrency firm, for potentially violating state securities laws. The Texas State Securities Board started looking into FTX’s … Continue reading →

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