WaPo: “Emboldened by his impeachment acquittal this fall, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — who still faces a whistleblower lawsuit and criminal charges — is thrusting himself back into the national spotlight with right-wing legal activism.
Paxton made major headlines last week for successfully blocking a lawsuit by a Dallas-areawoman who sought an abortion after her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal anomaly; she was forced to seek the procedure out of state. His response included sending a letter to Texas hospitals threatening felony prosecution if they allowed the procedure and warning that an initial court ruling in the woman’s favor would not insulate them, doctors “or anyone else from civil and criminal liability” for violating the state’s abortion ban….
Yet political experts and strategists see a shrewd calculation. Paxton’s extraordinary action, they say, was a play to his deep-red base while the Texas Republican Party is at war with itself. It followed litigation he filed last month against the drugmaker Pfizer, alleging that the company misrepresented the efficacy of its coronavirus vaccine and failed to end the pandemic soon enough.
Paxton also announced a fraud investigation of Media Matters for America — a “radical anti-free speech organization,” in his words — after the liberal watchdog group reported neo-Nazi and white-nationalist posts on X. Advertisers then began fleeing the platform, which prompted a lawsuit from X owner Elon Musk. On Monday, Media Matters punched back by taking Paxton to court for unlawful retaliation.
“The base loves it,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University in Houston, and the aggressive suits, threats and investigations are keeping Paxton’s supporters energized.”