The State Bar of Texas (SBT) dropped its charges against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this past week for filing the lawsuit Texas v. Pennsylvania, which contested election wrongdoing in the 2020 election. The move came in response to the Texas Supreme Court issuing a ruling dismissing the State Bar of Texas’s (SBT) four-year-long attempt to discipline Paxton’s First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster over his role in the lawsuit, calling it an “egregious invasion of the attorney general’s authority.”
“I am pleased to announce that the Texas State Bar has finally ended its baseless and politically motivated attempt to stop me for doing my duty to defend election integrity,” Paxton said in a statement. “The State Bar’s meritless case was not about justice or the rule of law but about weaponizing the legal process to attack me for boldly defending the rights of Texas. For four years, this unfounded lawfare wasted valuable time and resources, but these unethical tactics will never stop me from fighting to uphold the rule of law, protect our elections, and defend the values that Texans hold dear.”
The SBT’s Notice of Nonsuit with Prejudice dismissing the charges stated, “The Commission believes this Court’s recent decision in Webster v. Comm’n for Lawyer Discipline, No. 23-0694, 2024 WL 5249494 (Tex. Dec. 31, 2024), calls for its nonsuit of this related attorney disciplinary action.”
The disciplinary panel had alleged that Paxton and Webster made “misrepresentations” to the court, accusing them of violating the rules of conduct that govern dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, broad and vague rules that are typically used by state bars to target conservative attorneys.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled in Webster’s case that the legal theories of the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit were never decided on the merits since a majority on the Supreme Court dismissed the complaint for lack of standing. The court observed that two justices dissented, since they would have not have dismissed the complaint.
Additionally, the court said accusations of “lack of straightforwardness” or “integrity in principle” are “comparatively vague compared to other disciplinary rules.”
Paxton has continued his election integrity work since filing Texas v. Pennsylvania. He sued two Texas counties in September to stop them from using a partisan third-party vendor to help with voter registration efforts. In October, he sued the Biden administration “for refusing to comply with federal law requiring them to assist States in verifying the citizenship status of potentially ineligible people registered to vote.”
Sidney Powell, an attorney who also litigated over corruption in the 2020 election, was exonerated by the Texas Board of Disciplinary Appeals this past week. The SBT had brought charges against her related to her guilty plea in the Fulton County RICO prosecution against her, Donald Trump, and others. The panel ruled that since the misdemeanors did not rise to the level of a “serious crime” under Texas law, she wasn’t subject to discipline.
Powell addressed reporters outside the courtroom afterwards. She said the bar’s disciplinary attempt “is the epitome of lawfare that shouldn’t be allowed in this country.” A previous attempt by the SBT to discipline Powell was thrown out by a Texas appeals court in April 2024, which found that the bar failed to show evidence that Powell knowingly presented incorrect facts regarding election wrongdoing in battleground states.
Paxton previously filed briefs urging to convert the bar into a voluntary organization. Texas Bar Sunset, a legal integrity organization seeking to make the bar voluntary, lists multiple ways to reform the SBT. In Arizona, after the Arizona Supreme Court held that election attorneys could not be disciplined for bringing election challenges, the State Bar of Arizona’s disciplinary judge ruled that she would not discipline Kari Lake’s attorneys, Kurt Olsen and Andrew Parker, citing the court’s decision.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Texas A.G. Ken Paxton” by Texas A.G. Ken Paxton.