Law, Justice, and Whatever Texas Has

Do you have a lot of confidence in the law and justice?

I recently wrote that there are a lot of psychos in corporations. I didn’t mention the ones in government.

Texans have their sense of justice eroded away almost every time they read a newspaper. They just found out, for example, that a Dallas judge ruled that the state’s Attorney General, chief law enforcer Ken Paxton, can’t wiggle out of facing his three felony indictments. He is expected to face judgement on the fraud and swindling charges against him. Click here.

Paxton’s government job seems to be waging war against every kind of justice that comes from federal sources. He recently lost his Supreme Court suit against women’s health care. Click here. He joined in a lawsuit against U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Earl Walker because Walker had tried to subpoena records from Exxon. The issue was global warming.

Paxton doesn’t have to worry much about state criminal laws, because they are reviewed by the Texas Supreme Court. All their judges are elected, all are Republicans, and it’s hard to remember when they ruled against a corporation or in favor of an individual.

Paxton is probably inspired by our last governor, who still isn’t in jail for having used his power to remove an attorney with a criminal suit against him. Or there’s the Texas Congressman who re-rigged all the congressional districts and never spent a day in jail.

Where I live in Dallas, District Attorneys are supposed to stand for justice. But there are more exonerated former prisoners from here than from anywhere. The current officeholder isn’t holding office quite a bit of the time because she goes in and out of a mental hospital. Dallasites would kind of like to see her removed and there have been some public calls for it, but some of us are reluctant. If she doesn’t step down pretty soon, the Governor, a paragon of Republican virtue, will appoint her replacement.

That could be a lot worse!