Despite the national stereotypes of Texas being the deep-red Republican stronghold, admittedly at least partially due to the state’s laws surrounding reproductive rights, Texas is leaning significantly more purple with every election. While former Congressman Beto O’Rourke did ultimately lose to Senator and Cancun vacationer Ted Cruz in the 2018 Senate election, the results weren’t a Reagan 1984 result whatsoever. Cruz only won that election by a mere 215,000 votes, which accounted to only 2.6 percent of the total votes casted. Many of the mayors of Texas’ largest cities are all Democrats and several cities are discussing cannabis decriminalization measures in their respective jurisdictions.
Even in the Attorney General race, there’s multiple Democrats running to unseat the currently under indictment AG Ken Paxton. Such examples are former Harris County Criminal Court Judge Mike Fields and former Galveston mayor Joe Jaworski.
Mr. Paxton, who as of today is suing Google for “systematically deceiving consumers about how their locations are tracked and used”, is facing significant election opposition within his own party. Among his primary opponents are Land Commissioner George P. Bush, former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and Congressman Louie Gohmert. It’ll be among the most high-profile races to pay attention to on election night regardless of the victor and its outcome could be monumental towards how or if Texas reforms their draconian cannabis laws against their neighbor’s weakening policies on cannabis prohibition.
One of the candidates for Texas Attorney General who’s gotten his profile as one of America’s most highlighted civil rights attorneys into the national spotlight. By representing the families of victims in many highly publicized cases of police brutality such as Jordan Edwards, Atatiana Jefferson and the Dallas-based Botham Jean police killing, Lee Merritt has become nationally recognized for his work and advocacy for justice for communities that true justice isn’t always promised.
Both professionally and personally, civil rights has been an ever present common theme in Merritt’s life.
“I was born in Los Angeles, California during a time of heightened tensions between the state and community due to “war on drug” policies, the heightened incarceration and often police encounters.” Merritt described. “At the same time, South Africans were fighting to end apartheid and I grew up admiring the heroic fight of civil rights lawyer Nelson Mandela.”
A graduate of Temple University’s James Beasley School of Law, Merritt’s first job in the legal profession was at Cochran Law, the law firm of legendary lawyer Johnnie Cochran. Eventually, Merritt started his own law firm, Merritt Law Firm, focusing on the civil rights that he has since become nationally recognized for, especially in the aftermath of the 2020 protests that spanned the country.
“Since our launch, my firm has grown to be one the preeminent constitutional firms in the country representing families in some of the most important cases of our generation including Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson and George Floyd.”
Due to his work in highly publicized cases of police brutality and far overreach, Merritt has been mentioned previously in an article here with Texas Cannabis Collective.
This past March, a 26-year-old Black man with diagnosed but mostly managed schizophrenia named Marvin Scott III was arrested by law enforcement during a mental health crisis and sent to Collin County Detention Facility as opposed to his usual clinic he’d been taken to during previous crises. Because he was taken to a facility that flatly isn’t equipped to deal with a schizophrenic crisis in the same sense that a mental health facility would, the officers used excessive force and as a result, Marvin lost his life. Although this was a tragic loss of life at such a young age and such a preventable tragedy at the same time, the always authoritarian Collin County officers claimed they had probable cause to arrest Scott on behalf of “an article of cannabis” being found near him. Merritt served as counsel for the Scott family.
“Unfortunately, the case of Marvin Scott, III and the example of overreaction by our law enforcement community to the mental health crisis and/or the presence of cannabis is a familiar fact pattern.” Merritt explained.
“When Botham Jean was murdered in his home his assailant Amber Guyger claimed she was fearful of him sitting on his couch eating a bowl of ice-cream because of the aroma of marijuana. Joshua Brown, a witness in Botham Jean’s case, was murdered allegedly due to his involvement in the illegal traffic of cannabis. Oshae Terry was shot to death in Arlington a week before the murder of Botham Jean, after a police officer claimed to smell cannabis in his car when he was being pulled over for an expired tag. America boasts the deadliest police culture in the modern world and largest prison population in recorded history. These numbers are inextricably linked to the so-called war on drugs and the over criminalization of cannabis.”
As for his plans assuming he wins the Attorney General race in 2022, Merritt has plans to entirely redesign how Texas currently handles criminal justice. Far more thorough than the current actions and decisions of everyone’s favorite insurrection-supporting Attorney General, Merritt’s plans could possibly change the national stereotype of Texas having such ridiculously draconian policies on anything that dares to step out of the strict confines of social conservatism.
“The main objectives of the AG’s office is to protect the Texas consumer and uphold the constitution. I would work with local district attorneys to reprioritize our statewide law enforcement objectives; moving away from a system so reliant on arrest and incarceration and relying instead on policies geared at dealing with the foundational issues of addiction, poverty and poor mental health. I will work to build a citizens service based response to these social ills in place of a system that targets citizens as enemy combatants.”
Particularly on the subject of cannabis, Merritt is undoubtedly a far stronger supporter of cannabis reform than almost any lawyer in the immediate orbit of Governor Abbott. While Paxton stalls at any criminal statewide reform measures in the slightest and Lt. Governor Patrick takes an almost Dexter Morgan-like appreciation in killing cannabis-related legislation, Merritt has laid out a detailed plan in how he plans on reforming the cannabis laws in the Lone Star State.
“While the Texas Attorney General cannot change the laws in Texas I will offer formal opinions to the Texas legislator in support of the growing bipartisan support for the legalization and recreational availability of cannabis. I will also work to ensure that as cannabis is introduced to the Texas market, its entry is accomplished in an equitable way. As AG, I will usher cannabis into the Texas market in a way that prioritizes restoring the damage done after 50 years of war on drug policy.”
Outside of Texas, Merritt has represented cases in front of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, the commission that’s already condemned the United States many times for racial violence and mass incarceration.
“I presented over a dozen cases to a panel of inquiry before the United Nations. This resulted in a recommendation from the panel that the United States be brought up on human rights violation charges before the world court. The UN also made a number of recommendations to the US based on our presentation including ending the war on drugs and developing a greater healthcare and mental health infrastructure to replace the over reliance on militarized policing.”
For more information on Merritt’s campaign, please visit the campaign website.