The Texas Attorney General who was so eager to see the inside of a courtroom and sue over President Obama’s immigration actions is probably regretting that sentiment right about now.
Ken Paxton got himself in a heap of trouble earlier this week after a grand jury indicted him on “two counts of first-degree securities fraud and a charge of failing to register with state securities regulators.”
Paxton faces life in prison if convicted of the first-degree charges.
But, the legal troubles continue for Paxton, who is now also facing possible contempt of court charges “for violating a court order prohibiting enforcement of the state’s ban on same-sex marriage”:
The issue involves a Conroe man who is seeking to amend the death certificate of his male spouse, who died in January, to reflect their 2014 marriage in New Mexico. The document listed James Stone-Hoskins as single and his surviving spouse, John Allen Stone-Hoskins, as his “significant other.”
State officials declined to make the change, saying they were still reviewing last June’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned all remaining state bans on gay marriage.
Hours after the widower filed suit Wednesday morning challenging the refusal, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia issued a ruling ordering state officials to amend the death certificate.
Garcia also ordered Paxton and Kirk Cole, interim commissioner of the Department of State Health Services, into his courtroom for a Wednesday hearing on whether they should be held in contempt of court for disobeying his July order prohibiting Texas from enforcing its ban on same-sex marriage.
Paxton’s agency advised Cole on the death-certificate issue, according to the lawsuit.
As we’ve noted before, Paxton and other Texas Republicans infamously “judge-shopped” for an anti-immigrant ear to rule against DAPA and DACA+, ultimately ending up with Judge Andrew Hanen of Texas.
But, after the possible contempt of court news breaking today, it looks like there’s at least one judge in the state that Paxton couldn’t win over.
