Texas AG Scores Major Victory In Battle Against Catholic NGO Accused Of Trafficking

Attorney General Ken Paxton’s recent crusade against nonprofit organizations has been turbocharged by a flurry of favorable court rulings validating his use of a nearly 150-year-old state law to demand a company’s internal documents, and move to shut them down if they don’t comply.

Over the last two years, Paxton has launched investigations into at least a dozen companies, mostly immigrant-serving nonprofits, claiming they were breaking the law, or in some cases, their own corporate charters. None of these allegations have yet been proven in court.

What two key Texas courts and a federal appeals court have said, though, is that Paxton has wide authority to demand internal corporate records and file lawsuits to revoke a company’s right to do business in Texas if he believes they are violating the law. He can bring these legal actions without offering evidence to back up his claims, a Texas appeals court ruled.

While a judge would eventually have to rule on the merits of the allegations, that’s a process that can take months or more, requiring nonprofits to hire expensive lawyers to combat claims that might never be borne out.

No group has yet had to turn over documents or lost their corporate charter as legal battles are ongoing, but recent court rulings in Paxton’s favor leave few avenues to challenge this strategy outright.

Instead, organizations targeted by Paxton’s probes — including Annunciation House, the migrant shelter network, and Jolt Initiative, a Latino voter engagement nonprofit — are scrabbling together funds and pro bono support to defend themselves individually against his claims.

“The courts have said that the attorney general does have this significant power,” said Kristin Etter, an attorney with the Texas Immigration Law Council. “Nonprofit organizations should all be prepared to face increased scrutiny and understand that they can be targeted for any reason or no reason whatsoever.”

Continue reading at the Texas Tribune