In Waning Hours Of Obama Administration, Texas Attorney General Sues Outgoing President —​ Again

AUSTIN, TX — Even before Donald Trump took the oath of office during Thursday's pre-inaugural ceremonies in Washington, D.C.—somewhere between musical performances by the Frontmen of Country and Lee Greenwood—Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Texas joined a 14-state lawsuit while asking the president-elect to repeal the Endangered Species Act expansion.

More specifically, the called-for repeal centers on two new rules that Paxton said broadly expand the definition of critical habitat for endangered species. Paxton said the "unlawful" expansion was promulgated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The Obama administration's new rules are nothing more than an infringement on property rights, Paxton c contends, and he seemingly wasn't able to wait until after Friday's inauguration to urge the president-elect to repeal them.

“The Obama administration abused the limits of its office when it expanded the power of unelected bureaucrats to kill economic development on private property,” Paxton said. “One can only imagine how such unbridled authority would affect the men, women, and children who depend on that property for their financial security. This is nothing more than yet another end run around Congress by a president who is desperate to establish his environmental legacy by any means, even if it destroys the livelihood and investments of everyday American families.”

In a letter sent this week, Paxton said 14 attorneys general said the new rules pushed by the federal agencies “unlawfully and vastly expand the authority of the Services to designate areas as critical habitats.” Moreover, the letter states, the rules “violate the (Endangered Species) Act because they expand the regulatory definition of a critical habitat beyond its narrow statutory definition.”

Paxton noted the attorneys general also noted that the rules expand the definition of “adverse modification” of critical habitat beyond what is legally permitted.

Last November, Texas and 17 other states sued the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the current Secretaries of the Interior and Commerce, to challenge the rules. The Obama administration filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Jan. 13.

In addition to Texas, the states who signed the letter to the Trump transition team are Alabama; Alaska; Arkansas; Arizona; Kansas; Louisiana; Michigan; Montana; Nebraska; Nevada; South Carolina; West Virginia; and Wyoming.

The lawsuit joining comes one day after Paxton joined 13 other mostly Republican states in suing the federal government to block a federal rule limiting coal mining near waterways that was recently finalized.

Texas lawmakers—led by Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Paxton—have often expressed pride in the GOP-led state's prolific pace of litigation against the administration of President Barack Obama. Since he took office officially in January 2009, Obama has been sued by Texas close to 50 times.

On Thursday, on the penultimate official day for the Obama presidency, Texas got another one in.

>>> Official Ken Paxton photo via State of Texas