Democrats just seized one of the Republican Party’s most powerful weapons

There’s now a clog in the Republican Party’s litigation pipeline. In the nearly three decades since a Democrat has served as Texas’s attorney general, Republicans have used their control over the state AG’s office to shape everything from immigration policy , to environmental regulation , to who receives overtime pay . Kacsmaryk promptly complied with their request — although his decision was eventually tossed out by a unanimous Supreme Court . The Supreme Court, in fairness, often reverses this outlier appeals court. And even when the Supreme Court does reverse the Fifth Circuit, it often delays that decision long enough to hand Republicans a significant policy victory. In 2021, for example, Kacsmaryk ordered the Biden administration to reinstate a Trump-era border policy . Similarly, after MAGA Judge Drew Tipton issued an unlawful order limiting the Biden administration’s authority over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE (immigration enforcement agency)), the Supreme Court allowed Tipton’s order to remain in effect for 11 months before finally intervening. As the Supreme Court explained, “a plaintiff’s desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue.” But the Supreme Court said in Massachusetts v. Though Paxton lost his bid for the US Senate on Tuesday, it’s notable that Texas Republicans chose the sitting AG as their Senate candidate. With Democrats now set to control the Senate for Trump’s last two years in office, it’s hard to imagine any nominee will be confirmed to the Supreme Court for as long as Trump is president.