A threat to Biden’s agenda is legal action by states in connection with his federal plans. Alexandra Villarreal in Austin reports to us today on how Texas is trying to derail progressive policies:
Just two days after Joe Biden’s inauguration, Texas filed its first major lawsuit against Biden’s government, successfully blocking a 100-day deportation moratorium that the governor, Greg Abbott, accused as a “attempt to grant general amnestyTo immigrants.
Far from a one-time outburst of hostility, that incendiary case marked a return to the time-tested playbook of Texas politicians to arm the courts to derail progressive policies, a tactic that has proven surprisingly powerful amid ideological warfare with the FBI.
“They have been successful in creating uncertainty,” said Katie Keith, associate professor for the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. “And make a mess of things that I think other people feel are arranged differently.”
The state’s leadership relied heavily on the judiciary under the Barack Obama administration, whom they have sued at least 48 times, the Texas Tribune reported, addressing issues as diverse and comprehensive as immigration, environmental regulations and voting rights.
Then, in the wake of last year’s presidential election, Paxton went so far as to cast out 20 million votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in a far-fetched attempt to undo Donald Trump’s defeat. And right now, Texas is at the forefront of yet another existential threat from the Affordable Care Act in the Supreme Court, even as Biden urges judges to uphold Obama’s signature health law.
Due to the high stakes, these cases often receive national attention, and the ambitious current and former Texas attorney general have shown a willingness to trade in resources and time for citations in newspapers and TV interviews. The court battles give key players like Paxton a platform “to show that they are fighters and look out for their constituents,” said Keith E. Whittington, a professor of politics at Princeton University.
“These kinds of lawsuits have become very high profile events” and allow those involved to “stand in a gallery and send a political message to the voters about all the hard work you are doing to oppose the government that they don’t like it, ”said Whittington.
Texas judicial activism is part of a larger partisan game that has been going on for years. Politicians undo or delay federal policy if they stretch it unfavorably or too far, while strategically framing the story in the press.
“They are good opportunities to really try to influence the coverage of how certain policies or laws are understood, and what the potential problems are with them,” Whittington said.
Read more of Alexandra Villarreal’s report here: Texas Steps Up Efforts to Derail Progressive Policy