Rubber-stamping Star Chambers, the shameful vote of Texas senators to accept “evidence gathered in violation of law.”

Imagine you, your spouse, or your child accused of felony manslaughter due to a traffic accident in which another party died and the District Attorney brings criminal charges for such to a Grand Jury that then issues an indictment on the life changing charge.

Would you accept that indictment as just, lawful due process if you learned that none of the witnesses who appeared before the Grand Jury, or provided testimony by written statement, were sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth – with the penalty of perjury attached?

If you think you might have an almost certain chance of having the indictment thrown out by a trial court or appellate judge, you’d be on very firm ground.

This is the issue in the vote by Texas state senators in the Paxton impeachment trial.

Senators voted 22 Nays an 8 Yeas, on the “motion to exclude evidence gathered in violation of the law,” as Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick described it in calling for the vote. (The entire motion can be seen here: https://senate.texas.gov/_assets/coi/docs/Motion-to-Exclude-Evidence-20230802.pdf)

Can you imagine the riots and media coverage if something like this happened to a Left-favored activist, almost certainly a minority deemed by Leftist leaders as oppressed?

If a few years ago, a BLM leader had been arrested and indicted under federal or state RICO laws for helping organize or execute the violent, property destroying riots and protests across the nation we witnessed, what do you think the media and street reaction would have been? How much worse would it have been if it were disclosed that such indictment came without any sworn testimony? What if we learned that law enforcement people and other politically interested parties were simply allowed to make claims before a grand jury without facing any potential penalties for lying? Do you think the media coverage would be silent on the issue?

Of course not, rightly in this hypothetical case it would be wall-to-wall coverage and portrayed as tyrannical, un-American in every way, and one of the greatest cases of the denial of justice in American history.

In the impeachment case of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the media didn’t make any prominent mention, or log objection to, the fact that his indictment was done without sworn testimony in a venue that House leaders called a grand jury-like situation. Representatives serving as the grand jurors voted on a package of charges that were supported by unsworn testimony obtained by the investigating committee while it met in secret.

The perversions of process by the Texas House in this case are many but in this key, and obvious constitutional justice and due process issue, senators sitting as a trial jury had an opportunity to right a gross injustice and failed to do so.

In voting on pre-trial motions, only eight Texas senators voted “Yea,” for the motion, that was read out by Dan Patrick as the “motion to exclude evidence gathered in violation of the law.” Twenty-two senators voted “Nay,” against the motion.

My own state Senator Charles Perry, SD28, joined all Democrats and many other Republicans in voting for accepting “evidence gathered in violation of the law.”

There is no question that the motion itself from the Paxton team was an argument of law to which there can be legitimate disagreement. However, in arguing against the motion one puts to flight all commonly held ideas of fairness and due process.

Voting against the motion was an affirmation of secret Star Chamber-like proceedings in the Texas House against any and all political officeholders in the state and the vote was precedent setting.

I do not question the right of the House to bring impeachment charges against a political officeholder but that right should not be taken to give the House the right to run roughshod over commonly held ideas of due process and fairness.

Not only did House members issue indictments of Paxton without taking sworn testimony, those members did so without any semblance of meaningful public deliberation – something that is an inherent responsibility of that legislative body. (See my comparisons to past impeachment proceedings to that of Paxton here: The unnecessary Texas impeachment.)

Texas senators had an opportunity on Tuesday morning, 5 September 2023, to demonstrate to Texans why the founders and framers created a Senate as a deliberative body that serves as a counter force to the hot-headed, impassioned, and short-sighted House of Representatives (all descriptors used by founders and framers) but, they chose not so to do on this and other issues.

Be afraid, be very afraid, that Texas senators, Democrats who constantly claim to be champions for the protection of civil rights as well as a majority of Republicans, voted to endorse the House action of investigating and impeaching based upon hearsay and unsworn evidence.

If a George Soros-backed Leftist district attorney or a rouge local political boss D.A. were to do this to you or your family, you’d have an almost certain chance to right the wrong quickly before the court or upon appeal. Ken Paxton, or any other officeholder, gets no such chance as there is no appeal from the Senate in an impeachment case.