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The Texas Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit towards Assistant Legal professional Normal Brent Webster that sought to remove his legislation license for partaking in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation” in a authorized submitting he and Texas Legal professional Normal Ken Paxton submitted concerning 2020 election outcomes.
The ruling upholds an earlier one by a Williamson County district choose who determined that taking Webster’s license would violate the Texas Structure’s separation of powers doctrine. The district court docket’s choice was reversed by the Eighth Courtroom of Appeals in 2023 earlier than the case went earlier than the Texas Supreme Courtroom.
Chief Justice Nathan Hecht and Justices John Phillip Devine, Jimmy Blacklock, Brett Busby, Jane Bland, and Rebeca Aispuru Huddle joined Justice Evan A. Younger, who delivered the opinion. Justices Jeff Boyd and Debra Lehrmann dissented.
Usually, the court docket the place a lawsuit is filed is tasked with reviewing the accuracy of statements and issuing any rebuke of the attorneys concerned, not courts that aren’t related to a case, Younger wrote.
The lawsuit filed by Paxton and Webster sought to contest the 2020 presidential election ends in 4 key battleground states that President Joe Biden received — Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. The lawsuit argued these states carried out pandemic-related modifications to election procedures that have been unlawful, casting election outcomes into query.
The U.S. Supreme Courtroom rejected the lawsuit in December 2020, days after it was filed. A disciplinary committee for the State Bar of Texas then took what was seen as a unprecedented transfer by suing Paxton and Webster over their election litigation.
Tuesday’s ruling didn’t have an effect on Paxton’s case.
“After four years of lawfare and political retaliation, the Texas Supreme Court has ended this witch hunt against the leadership of my office,” Paxton mentioned in an announcement launched Tuesday. “The Texas State Bar attempted to punish us for fighting to secure our national elections but we did not and will not ever back down from doing what is right.”
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Webster echoed Paxton’s assertion in the identical press launch, saying President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in November would enable them to return the work of “making Texas and America great again without distraction.”
Lowell Brown, affiliate deputy director for the State Bar, mentioned the bar had no touch upon the choice.
“The Commission for Lawyer Discipline has not had a chance to meet and to discuss the potential implications of the decision with the Chief Disciplinary Counsel,” Brown wrote in an e mail.
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