Critics of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which provides legal advice to the White House and Cabinet agencies, have long argued it acts as a rubber stamp for the president and essentially drafts laws behind closed doors. The judge s accusation this week that the OLC was tasked with clearing Trump s name is only likely to increase calls for reform and greater transparency.
Ethics and transparency advocates have been calling for the office to be reformed for years, and some are hoping that the latest revelation about how it operated during the Trump administration will provide some momentum.
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“If you think of the federal government like a private client, then they go to OLC like their private attorney to make the best arguments in favor of what they want,” said Erica Newland, counsel at Protect Democracy and a former OLC attorney who has spoken out against the Trump DOJ since leaving in 2018 after joining as a career attorney in 2016.
Attorney General Ken Paxton unblocks nine Texans on Twitter after lawsuit claiming he violated First Amendment rights
Texas Tribune
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has unblocked on Twitter the nine Texans who sued him after they say they were unconstitutionally blocked for criticizing him or his policies on the social media platform. Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has unblocked on Twitter the nine Texans who sued him after they say they were unconstitutionally blocked for criticizing him or his policies on the social media platform.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has unblocked on Twitter the nine Texans who sued him after they say they were unconstitutionally blocked for criticizing him or his policies on the social media platform. Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has unblocked on Twitter the nine Texans who sued him after they say they were unconstitutionally blocked for criticizing him or his policies on the social media platform.
In a lawsuit filed in April, a group of Texans said being blocked from viewing Paxton’s tweets from his @KenPaxtonTX account was a violation of the First Amendment because it limited the rights of people to participate in a public forum and access statements made by the public official.
Attorneys: Texas AG unblocks Twitter critics after lawsuit
by The Associated Press
Last Updated May 6, 2021 at 3:44 pm EDT
AUSTIN, Texas Nine Twitter users who sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for blocking them on the social media platform have regained access to the Republican’s posts, their attorneys said Thursday.
The users blocked by Paxton included college students, a journalist, a U.S. Army veteran and the leader of a progressive political group. All said in a lawsuit filed last month that Paxton denied them access to his tweets after they criticized his policies.
They were represented by the ACLU and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which cheered Paxton’s reversal.
Paxton unblocks nine Texans on Twitter after lawsuit claiming he violated First Amendment rights
Megan Menchaca, The Texas Tribune
May 6, 2021
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FILE Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at a news conference as District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, left, and other state attorneys general look on, outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Sept. 9, 2019. In a petition filed on Oct. 31 in Texas state court of Travis County, Google, along with its parent company Alphabet, sought a protective order against Paxton, who is spearheading the multistate antitrust investigation into the company. (Al Drago/The New York Times)Al Drago/NYT