On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed his 13th lawsuit against the Obama administration.
“We’ve got a lot going on in this office,” Paxton said. “Since I’ve been in office we’ve dealt with over 100,000 matters. I think we’ve got about 30,000 cases going at any one time.”
Between fighting human trafficking, collecting child support and dealing with a lawsuit of his own, Paxton has managed to sue the Obama administration more than a dozen times.
“I wish we didn’t have to file anymore lawsuits against the federal government,” Paxton said, “but I’m thinking that Obama before he leaves is going to do a few more things outside of what we believe is his constitutional authority and we’ll fight to stop it.”
On Tuesday Paxton sued the federal government, claiming a new federal nondiscrimination health rule created to protect transgender people, could force doctors to act contrary to their medical judgement or religious beliefs.
“The law is on our side. I mean the President made this up—his administration made this up,” Paxton said. “It’s just another example of the type of lawsuit we’ve been dealing with.”
This comes two days after a federal judge in Texas halted an Obama administration directive requiring schools to let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice—another lawsuit Paxton headed in May.
“Unfortunately this is yet another instance where Texas’ republican leadership has brought embarrassment to our great state,” Manny Garcia with the Texas Democratic Party said about Paxton’s transgender bathroom lawsuit. “This isn’t what we stand for. We are the friendly state. We’re the kind state. That’s who we are.”
Paxton shut down recent criticism that claimed he was targeting transgender people. The state’s top lawyer said the two most recent lawsuits aren’t about transgender people; they are are about President Obama overstepping his authority.
“A lot of people get caught up in talking about the weeds and talking about a particular issue, but for us it’s about the process. Separation of powers and Congress being the body that is supposed to pass laws, not the President,” Paxton said. “If we let that go, then we are going to have a President that has all power and Congress is going to be irrelevant.”
Earlier this week Paxton agreed to have dinner with a Texas family and their transgender son. He said he plans to keep his word and is looking forward to meeting the family. Right now no date for that dinner has been set.
