A federal judge ruled that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) cannot move forward with a lawsuit against ActBlue, a fundraising platform used by progressives.
District Judge Richard G. Stearns blocked Paxton from continuing the case. “Paxton and each of his agents and employees are hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from continuing to litigate the Texas state civil enforcement action…or from bringing any new state civil enforcement action premised on the same conduct.”
“The lawsuit in Texas is undoubtedly an adverse action,” Stearns wrote in a 15-page order. “And having previously found bad faith, the court agrees with ActBlue that the evidence in the record compels the conclusion that, far from protecting Texas consumers, the action was filed in retaliation for ActBlue’s fundraising on behalf of Talarico, Paxton’s current political rival for the Senate seat.”
Lawrence Oliver, Chief Legal Officer at ActBlue, said the ruling “affirms that political fundraising is core to free speech and protected by the First Amendment. The Texas Attorney General attempted to silence everyday Americans who want to donate to candidates and causes they believe in. The court clearly chose the Constitution over partisan politics.”
Paxton filed a lawsuit against the fundraising platform in April, alleging that it has engaged in sweeping donor fraud. “Among other misrepresentations, despite knowing — and representing to regulators — that resuming its acceptance of gift cards would open the door to election influence ‘from high-risk/sanctioned countries’ and enable foreign nationals and other ineligible persons to make unlawful contributions to federal and state candidates, ActBlue went back to accepting them,” the filing reads.
“This was not an oversight,” it continues. “It was a continuation of ActBlue’s long-standing pattern and practice of tolerating rampant donor fraud on its platform so long as the fraud stayed below the radar of regulators.”
