Fifth Circuit clears path for Ken Paxton to continue vote harvesting probes, for now

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: San Antonio Express-News

Oct 15, 2024


A federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated portions of Texas’ 2021 voting law regulating ballot handling, ruling that a judge’s previous decision to strike certain rules came too close to the 2024 election.

The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, means the provisions aimed at preventing “vote harvesting” will stay in effect through at least Nov. 5, and that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is cleared to investigate into the practice.

Judge James Ho, who authored the decision, wrote that the state law in question had “been on the books for over three years” when U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez struck down the provisions for being overly vague. Rodriguez’s decision came after some counties had already mailed out absentee ballots, Ho noted.

The case was initiated by a group of civil rights organizations in 2021, soon after the law was passed. Rodriguez oversaw a lengthy, three-year trial that included more than 80 witnesses.

Read more: https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/ken-paxton-vote-harvesting-ruling-19839100.php

[PSPS]

1. The reliable trump/mcconnell-packed fifth circuit

[Lonestarblue]

2. Judge Ho has been mentioned as a possible Supreme Court justice to replace Thomas.

He is far, far to the right and corrupt to the core, just like Thomas, and they even gave the same mentor, Harlan Crow.

“But in this country, under a Republican administration, Ho’s complete disregard for precedent, hostility to logic, and seething hatred for women and pregnant people might just make him the next associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Since his appointment to the Fifth Circuit by Donald Trump in 2018, Ho has been campaigning to replace the oldest current Supreme Court justice and the one most likely to retire under the next Republican presidential administration: Clarence Thomas. Ho, a darling of the Federalist Society, has been groomed for exactly this purpose. He attended elite universities (Stanford for college, the University of Chicago for law school). He clerked for Thomas. He’s taken all the right jobs to rise up the conservative ranks—including serving as the solicitor general of Texas. (He succeeded Senator Ted Cruz in that role and was replaced by Jonathan Mitchell, the creator of Texas’s fugitive uterus bill, which placed a bounty on people who provide help to those seeking abortions.) And he seems to be in with the real power players in the Republican judge-making apparatus: the donor class. Indeed, Ho was sworn in as a Fifth Circuit judge by Thomas in—wait for it—Harlan Crow’s personal library.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/james-ho-next-clarence-thomas/

[riversedge]

6. omg! Ho would be completely horrible for the USA.

[GB_RN]

3. James Ho...

He’s one of the sonsabitches on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals who claimed OBGyns who might have to perform abortions would suffer an aesthetic injury because they would be denied the ability to treat the mother and newborn.

What. A. USELESS. Brainless. Fuckstick.

How do these people get through law school if this is an example of their legal writings? If I’d ever tried something equivalent in either of my two undergraduate degrees (BS and BSN), or my two master degrees (MBA and MMCi*), I’d have failed the class(es).

*MMCi = Master of Management in Clinical Informatics, a relatively new degree (~ 20, years or so), dealing with healthcare issues, policy, management and healthcare IT. Duke University).

[sakabatou]

4. Ugh. Just what TX needs: more power to Paxton and his ilk

[walkingman]

5. The 5th and 11th circuit are both the result of the BUSH cabal

5th circuit - Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi
SCOTUS circuit assignment - For the Fifth Circuit - Samuel A. Alito, Jr., nominated President George W. Bush

11th circuit - Alabama, Florida, Georgia
SCOTUS circuit assignment - For the Eleventh Circuit - Clarence Thomas, nominated by President George H. W. Bush