One Feels Quietly Proud

Texas AG Paxton says costs and ‘liberal’ judges led agency to settle with whistleblowers https://t.co/2kmyThs99E

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) February 16, 2023

When the Attorney General of Texas complains that the legal system is biased against him and he can't get a fair hearing on a complaint filed against him by former employees, so he buckles to the corruption of the system and taps out rather than fight a useless fight against the...did he say "Deep State," or not?

Did he have to?

Such a shining beacon of integrity in the office he holds!  From the guy who "judge-shops" so regularly Steve Vladeck has made a cottage industry out of it.

The first point is true but irrelevant; the issue isn't the validity of single-judge divisions in the abstract; it's the appearance created by Texas's repeated *exploitation* of them.

And the second is silly; one of the alternative venues proposed by DOJ *includes* Judge Tipton.

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) February 16, 2023

As always, this data excludes two categories:

1) Challenges Texas has filed *elsewhere* (such as a petition for review filed directly in the Fifth Circuit last week); and

2) Challenges filed by other arms of the Texas government *besides* the AG (like the General Land Office).

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) February 16, 2023

I guess Paxton couldn't follow the lead of is idol and model for jurisprudence, Donald Trump, and get this case in front of a judge who would favor Paxton's claims of innocence. Or persecution. Or whatever he claimed as exoneration for his corruption.