Editors Note: <p>The hits keep coming from Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general running for a third term while under indictment for securities fraud. This time, <a href="https://fullsite.motherjones.com/politics/2022/09/ken-paxton-subpoena-process-server-ran-away-second-amendment/">it's a story so ridiculous</a>, my colleague Tim Murphy called it "<a href="https://fullsite.motherjones.com/politics/2022/09/ken-paxton-subpoena-process-server-ran-away-second-amendment/">Coen Brothers-esque</a>," referring to the filmmakers' brand of subversive, <em>Looney Tunes</em>-ish dark comedies where characters regularly land themselves in outlandishly convoluted plotlines. </p> <p>It's the perfect description of what was <a href="https://fullsite.motherjones.com/politics/2022/09/ken-paxton-subpoena-process-server-ran-away-second-amendment/">described in a new affidavit</a> this week. Let Tim explain:</p> <blockquote><p>According to the affidavit, a process server, Ernesto Herrera, parked outside the Paxtons' home, knocked on the door, and saw both the attorney general and his wife come to the door. But upon seeing Herrera, the AG backed away and let his wife handle the interaction. Herrera identified himself as a process server “trying to deliver important legal documents to Mr. Paxton.” She told him that the AG was on the phone and then in a hurry to leave, after which Herrera handed her his business card, and then returned to his car to wait.</p> <p>Not long after, the affidavit stated, Paxton’s driver pulled up in a Chevy Tahoe, and the AG began walking out to the vehicle. Then Herrera called out his name. "As soon as he heard me call his name out, he turned around and <span style="text-decoration: underline"><strong>RAN</strong></span> back inside the house through the same door in the garage."</p></blockquote> <p>Paxton later said in a statement that the process server was lucky the situation didn't "necessitate force"—a truly wild thing for anyone, let alone a Texas attorney general, to say.</p> <p>I found myself laughing, truly lol-ing while reading <a href="https://fullsite.motherjones.com/politics/2022/09/ken-paxton-subpoena-process-server-ran-away-second-amendment/">Tim's brilliant post on the entire scen</a>e. But as he mentions later, Paxton's invocation of the Second Amendment, as well as the subpoena he was served, is a disturbing symptom of the rise of vigilante enforcement around the country, an issue our colleague <a href="https://fullsite.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/in-the-gops-new-surveillance-state-everyones-a-snitch/">Pema Levy wrote about in this incisive feature</a>. And really, that might be the most Coen-esque thing<strong> </strong>about this whole Paxton saga: ridiculous, nearly unbelievable plots that ultimately have something pretty dim to say about our society.</p> <p><em><strong>—Inae Oh</strong></em></p>
Top Story URL: https://fullsite.motherjones.com/politics/2022/09/ken-paxton-subpoena-process-server-ran-away-second-amendment/
Top Story Title: Don’t Try Serving Ken Paxton With a Subpoena, Unless You Want to Get Shot
Top Story Headline Override: didn't work
Top Story Dek: The Texas attorney general believes in the right to privacy—for himself, anyway.
Top Story Byline: By Tim Murphy
Top Story Image: https://fullsite.motherjones.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/220927_Paxton.jpg?w=990?w=800
Top Story Image Credit: Rod Lamkey/CNP via ZUMA Press Wire
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Trending 1 Title: Thousands of Virginia students walk out to protest Youngkin's new anti-trans proposals
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Trending 1 Dek: It was one of the largest school demonstrations in recent memory.
Trending 1 Byline: By Arianna Coghill
Trending 2 URL: https://fullsite.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2022/09/louisianas-infamous-angola-prison-will-now-lock-up-children/
Trending 2 Title: Louisiana's infamous Angola prison will now lock up children.
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