We have a new contender for Attorney General.
Lee Merritt
Civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt has announced he’s running for Texas Attorney General in 2022 via his social media pages Saturday.
“Texas deserves an attorney general that will fight for the constitutional rights of all citizens,” tweeted Merritt.
In a video posted Saturday evening, Merritt said he didn’t plan to announce his run for the position this soon.
He expressed how his concerns for a lack of inaction and the lack of resources available for people in mental health crisis in Texas led to his decision on the heels of the death of Marvin Scott III.
Scott died at the Collin County jail after seven guards tried to restrain him in a cell on Sunday, March 14. Those employees have been placed on leave while the Texas Rangers conduct an investigation into the circumstances of his death.
Merritt is the attorney for the Scott family. He told WFAA that Scott’s mental health crisis was not appropriately addressed by police and detention officers.
You can see Merritt’s announcement here. He joins Joe Jaworski, and maybe George P Bush on the Republican side in challenging our official state felon, Ken Paxton, for the AG’s job. I don’t know much about Lee Merritt, but he sounds like he’s perfectly well qualified and won’t be afraid to mix it up. If he can raise some money, so much the better. Welcome to the race, Lee Merritt.
I would like to talk to Lee Merritt. IF he has a Web site, I will email him. The victim, Marvin Scott, was taken to a hospital and spent several hours there before being transported to jail. They suspected he was intoxicated on some kind of goofballs, but they released him to jail. When he was strapped to the restraint board at the jail, he went into cardiac arrest and died. The jail is not at fault for this. We need to call out the medical industry, and the doctors, who kill around 100,000 people per year through medical error.
This topic is important to me, because, when I worked at my jail, I had a similar experience. The town hospital called the cops because of a patient who was aggressive. They had the cops arrest him and bring him to my jail. I called the hospital and told them they needed to take this guy back and evaluate him. Well the hospital called the sheriff to ask “who is this idiot questioning us?” I had to get a slap on the wrist and I had to write an explanation of why I took it upon myself to call. So, I wrote a page about how, if this man felt out of control, he did the right thing by going to the hospital and checking in to the mental health ward. I wrote that he could have a mental illness or withdrawal from substance abuse. Or even a neurological disorder, such as some forms of epilepsy cause violent behavior. And that the hospital should have thoroughly evaluated him before having him hauled off to jail. They did claim that the guy was a drug abuser. So, even more, they should have assessed him for possible overdose or withdrawal and held him there to detox. He stayed in the jail, and didn’t die, eventually improving somewhat, but kept in segregation his entire time at the jail.
Some years later, I had moved to Houston, and out of the blue, a lawyer called me. He had been tracking me down. My jail was getting sued for an inmate that it had killed. I had been listed as a defendant (everyone on the shift was listed at first), but now, he wanted me to be a witness. I said sure, if you remove me from your suit, with prejudice. (My jail, by the way, killed a few people, all white. Many people who go to jail don’t take good care of themselves, and have self inflicted health problems, from substance abuse, poor nutrition, poor hygiene, etc.) Anyway, during the course of this attorney’s preparation for the suit to be tried, he had subpoenaed my personnel file. He read my little explanation of why I had called the hospital that time. He said that it was well written, and, the jail should’ve backed me up, rather than taking responsibility for an inmate who potentially had a mental health problem that needed treated, or was suffering from withdrawal or intoxication.
This is why I don’t subscribe to the current medical tyranny. It is why I don’t get swept away with kowtowing to experts and the rulers. AS I look back on my life, I am proud of the times that I stood up against the rulers for my beliefs. This has probably cost me all of the benefits that I could have had from my patriarchical privilege, but so be it. I hope this helps you to understand me a little better as well.
I would also like to tell MR. Merritt that his desire to fight for the “constitutional rights of all citizens” is a bit misguided. The fact is, that people are afraid to exercise their constitutional rights due to the social justice movement that he champions. I just read a paper from the Templeton Foundation about how college students are self censoring, afraid to discuss topics of religion, race, sexuality, all for fear of offending someone. Creating a division, and a culture of safe spaces is causing many to forego their constitutional rights. Discussion and debate are no longer possible, for fear of offending someone.
Re: “Texas deserves an attorney general that will fight for the constitutional rights of all citizens.”
Welcome to the fray and no offense, but has he had a chance to read the AG’s job description?
Starting with:
* Constitutional basis of the Office of the Attorney General in our plural executive (see below)
* Statutory responsibilities assigned to the OAG (e.g., paternity establishment and child support collection, consumer protection, open records, representing state agencies and its official/employees in litigation, etc. …). See OAG website for all Divisions, incl. info on the more controversial initiatives, like “Election Integrity”.
Note that consumer rights/protections against abuse by businesses are not constitutional, but statutory: DTPA in particular.
And, assuming arguendo that focusing on *constitutional rights* is warranted for pre-campaign purposes, what about the constitutional rights of lawfully admitted aliens?
Or of undocumented ones who happen to present in the jurisdiction, for that matter.
Assuming the quote is verbatim, has this civil-right-for-citizens attorney heard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
—–
ARTICLE IV: EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
Sec. 22. ATTORNEY GENERAL. The Attorney General shall represent the State in all suits and pleas in the Supreme Court of the State in which the State may be a party, and shall especially inquire into the charter rights of all private corporations, and from time to time, in the name of the State, take such action in the courts as may be proper and necessary to prevent any private corporation from exercising any power or demanding or collecting any species of taxes, tolls, freight or wharfage not authorized by law. He shall, whenever sufficient cause exists, seek a judicial forfeiture of such charters, unless otherwise expressly directed by law, and give legal advice in writing to the Governor and other executive officers, when requested by them, and perform such other duties as may be required by law.
‘Hopped up on goofballs’.
And there I was thinking I had just about heard it all on the customer comment forum. That’s some straight out of Sgt. Friday, Dragnet shit there.
C.L., “goofballs” is from The Simpsons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yokDFLIwKa0
Sorry Jason, but ‘goofballs’ is from well before the Simpsons.
But it IS interesting to see where you’re getting your (pop culture ?) inspiration.