After four years of contentious legal battles, the Texas State Bar has officially dropped its effort to sanction Attorney General Ken Paxton. The move comes shortly after the Texas Supreme Court dismissed a related case against Paxton’s first assistant, Brent Webster, in December 2024.
In December 2020, following a presidential election filled with concerns about election integrity, Paxton led 18 states in filing Texas v. Pennsylvania at the United States Supreme Court. The case challenged the voting procedures in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin and sought to temporarily block those states from certifying vote counts ahead of the Electoral College vote. The Supreme Court eventually dismissed the case, stating that Texas lacked standing to bring the lawsuit.
In 2022, the Texas State Bar—the professional organization that certifies lawyers—attempted to censure and sanction Paxton and Webster for having filed the suit, calling it frivolous. The Bar filed a lawsuit against them to strip their law licenses.
In a statement, Attorney General Paxton decried the State Bar’s efforts as politically motivated lawfare and celebrated the conclusion of the case.
“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,” stated Paxton. “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.”
