Thomas Dale DeLay is an American author and retired politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives,representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1985 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005.
The 2004 Washington gubernatorial election was held on November 2,2004. The race gained national attention for its legal twists and extremely close finish,among the closest political races in United States election history. Republican Dino Rossi was declared the winner in the initial automated count and again in a subsequent automated recount,but after a second recount done by hand,Democrat Christine Gregoire took the lead by a margin of 129 votes.
Ronald Dale Earle was an American politician and judge who was,from January 1977 to January 2009,the District Attorney for Travis County,Texas. He became nationally known for filing charges against House majority leader Tom DeLay in September 2005 for conspiring to violate Texas' election law and/or to launder money. In Texas,Earle was known for his criminal justice reform efforts which focused on crime prevention,alternative sentencing,victim advocacy,and the reintegration of former offenders into society. In 1983,Earle - an Eagle Scout - prosecuted himself for an election law violation after missing a campaign finance filing deadline by one day;he was fined $212. Earle was a fixture in Travis County politics and served in public office there for more than 30 years,joking that he was asked if he was the "District Eternity".
The Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX) is the court of last resort for civil matters in the U.S. state of Texas. A different court,the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA),is the court of last resort in criminal matters.
Hopwood v. Texas,78 F.3d 932,was the first successful legal challenge to a university's affirmative action policy in student admissions since Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. In Hopwood,four white plaintiffs who had been rejected from University of Texas at Austin's School of Law challenged the institution's admissions policy on equal protection grounds and prevailed. After seven years as a precedent in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,the Hopwood decision was abrogated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003.
Simeon Timothy Lake III is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. His notable trials include the trial of Enron Chairman Ken Lay and former Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling.
Tom DeLay,a Republican U.S. Representative from Texas from 1979–83,and from 1985–2006 and the House Majority Leader from 2003–05,was convicted in 2010 of money laundering and conspiracy charges related to illegal campaign finance activities aimed at helping Republican candidates for Texas state office in the 2002 elections. In 2013,a Texas Court of Appeals panel acquitted DeLay when it overturned his conviction. This decision was affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on October 1,2014. DeLay had three years from that date,i.e. until October 1,2017,to file any lawsuits for wrongful action.
The 2006 United States House of Representatives elections in Texas were held on November 7,2006,to determine the 32 U.S. Representatives from the state of Texas,one from each of the state's 32 congressional districts. These elections coincided with the 2006 midterm elections,which included a gubernatorial election and an election to the U.S. Senate.
Fortunato Pedro Benavides is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His chambers are in Austin,Texas.
Daniel C. Morales is an American politician. He served as the 48th Attorney General of Texas from January 15,1991 through January 13,1999,during the administrations of Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush. As Attorney General,Morales reached a $17 billion settlement with big tobacco companies.
Derek Larkin Schmidt is an American lawyer and politician who served as the Kansas Attorney General from 2011 to 2023. A Republican,Schmidt was first elected to office serving in the Kansas Senate,where he represented the 15th district from 2001 to 2011,and served as Agriculture Committee chairman and Senate majority leader. Schmidt became the state attorney general in 2011,after he defeated incumbent Democrat Stephen Six in the November 2010 elections and joined other Republican states' attorneys general in suing to block many Obama administration policies. In 2020,after Republican President Donald Trump was defeated by Joe Biden but refused to acknowledge defeat,Schmidt joined a failed legal effort to overturn the election results.
Andrew Scott Hanen is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Harold Barefoot Sanders Jr. was an American attorney,politician,and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas and counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson. He was best known for overseeing the lawsuit to desegregate the Dallas Independent School District.
Orly Taitz is an Israeli-American political conspiracy theorist and political candidate. A dentist,lawyer,and former real estate agent,Taitz was a figure in the "birther" movement,which promoted the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not a natural-born citizen eligible to serve as president of the United States. Taitz also promotes other conspiracy theories both related and unrelated to Obama. Taitz has initiated lawsuits on behalf of the "birther" movement;all were dismissed by the courts,and on one occasion Taitz was ordered to pay $20,000 as a sanction for misconduct in filing frivolous claims. Taitz has unsuccessfully run in statewide elections in California three times.
Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton has described himself as a Tea Party conservative.
Numerous lawsuits and ballot challenges,based on conspiracy theories related to Barack Obama's eligibility for the United States presidency,were filed following his first election in 2008 and over the course of his two terms as president. These actions sought to have Obama disqualified from running for,or being confirmed for,the Presidency of the United States,to declare his actions in office to be null and void,or to compel him to release additional documentation related to his U.S. citizenship.
The 2020 United States presidential election in Texas was held on Tuesday,November 3,2020,as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Texan voters chose 38 electors to represent them in the Electoral College. In a popular vote the Republican Party's nominee,incumbent President Donald Trump,and running mate Vice President Mike Pence won all the electors against the Democratic Party's nominee,former Vice President Joe Biden,and his running mate California Senator Kamala Harris.
After the 2020 United States presidential election,the campaign for incumbent President Donald Trump and others filed and lost at least 63 lawsuits contesting election processes,vote counting,and the vote certification process in multiple states,including Arizona,Georgia,Michigan,Nevada,Pennsylvania,and Wisconsin. Among the judges who dismissed the lawsuits were some appointed by Trump himself.
Before Election Day of the 2020 United States presidential election,lawsuits related to the voting process were filed in various states. Many of these lawsuits were related to measures taken by state legislatures and election officials in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In direct response to Pennsylvania Democratic Party v. Boockvar and the 2020 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania,the Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign launched numerous lawsuits contesting the purview of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the election processes of Pennsylvania. All of these have either been dismissed or dropped. The last two remaining cases were dismissed without comment by the Supreme Court on February 22,2021. On April 19,2021,more than five months after the November 3,2020 election,the Supreme Court declined to hear the outstanding case brought by former Republican congressional candidate Jim Bognet,dismissing it without comment.
