Issue Position: Fighting Federal Overreach

Issue Position

As Attorney General, I will defend our Constitution, fight against burdensome federal overreaches, and get results.

Whether defending our 1st Amendment religious liberties, the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms or the 10th Amendment's reservation of power to the States, I will exhaust all available lawful remedies to protect Texas from federal, executive or judicial branch abuse.

As a young lawyer in the mid 1980s, I became frustrated by federal court encroachment on our religious liberty. In the US Supreme Court, Wallace v. Jaffree, activist jurists had struck down a state law that allowed school children to begin their day with a moment of prayer. So during my first term in the Texas House of Representatives, I successfully sponsored a new law to return a daily moment of silence and the U.S. and Texas pledges of allegiance to our classrooms. I then worked with Attorney General Greg Abbott and then-Solicitor General Ted Cruz to successfully defend the law's constitutionality.

Today, whether it's the IRS, the NSA, the EPA, or the Justice Department, it seems there's another story about the Obama Administration's assault on our freedoms and liberties. I will stand up for Texas and take the fight to Washington and President Obama's allies who have put a bull's eye on our freedoms, and are trampling on our Constitution.

In addition, when our federal government fails to protect our international border, or ensure our lawful rights to water protected by a treaty with Mexico, I won't rest until the federal bureaucrats are held accountable.

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