Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, recently learned a hard lesson about venturing into unchartered territories. This lesson came to him in a rather public and somewhat embarrassing fashion by Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court in DC.
The tale starts in November 2023 when Media Matters, a non-profit news outlet published a story revealing ads for companies like Apple and Oracle appearing next to explicit Nazi content on Twitter. This led to an uproar from Elon Musk who reacted by filing a rather insignificant lawsuit. Subsequently, a pending motion to dismiss was filed due to a lack of personal jurisdiction.
During this period, Ken Paxton along with some other Republican AGs united to protect Elon Musk by using their offices to harass Media Matters. Paxton served Media Matters with a civil investigative demand in the District of Columbia. MMFA sought to enjoin the subpoena, first in a federal court in Maryland, and then in DC. This is how all parties ended up facing Judge Mehta.
Paxton contended that the federal court in DC had no jurisdiction over him. However, Judge Mehta shot down his argument, pointing out that the act of hiring a process server in DC established minimum contacts with the district, which was sufficient to activate personal jurisdiction.
In addition, Eric Hananoki and MMFA argued that the intimidating investigation instigated by Texas’ AG had resulted in them avoiding Musk and Twitter-related stories, thereby constituting a violation of their First Amendment rights.
After considering these points, Judge Mehta granted the TRO and declined Paxton’s motion to dismiss, which could spell trouble for Missouri AG Andrew Bailey who is attempting to enforce a similar subpoena.
Paxton slinked back into his corner, undoubtedly regretting his adventurous foray into unchartered territory.