On Monday’s holiday remembering Martin Luther King Jr., Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement claiming the slain civil rights icon would oppose Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies.
Paxton, a hard-right Trump ally, made the assertion in a press release touting a new legal opinion in which he labeled all DEI frameworks “unconstitutional” and threatened schools, state agencies and even private companies that they open themselves up to litigation if they adopt such policies.
“This action to dismantle DEI in Texas helps fulfill the vision articulated by Martin Luther King, Jr. when he dreamed that his children would one day live in a nation where they were judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” Paxton said.
Scholars of the Civil Rights Movement have repeatedly fired back at claims by right-wing politicians that King would oppose DEI, calling such statements uninformed and disingenuous. To be sure, King’s eldest son told the Texas Tribune in 2021 that Lone Star State Republicans have frequently taken his father’s words out of context.
“We should judge people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin — but that is when we have a true, just, humane society where there are no biases, where there is no racism, where there is no discrimination,” Martin Luther King III told the publication. “Unfortunately, all these things still exist.”
Indeed, Paxton’s 74-page opinion appears to be a thinly veiled attack on U.S. Sen John Cornyn, the four-term Texas Republican whom Paxton seeks to unseat in the upcoming primary, according to legal observers.
When Cornyn was Texas AG in 1999, he issued an opinion declining to comment on the use of race in public universities’ financial aid decisions. Paxton specifically mentioned Cornyn’s opinion in the press release trumpeting his legal document.
Paxton’s latest opinion also comes after another hopeful in Texas’ senate race, State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, warned that “the worst politicians will be quoting Martin Luther King Jr.” out of context on Monday’s national holiday.
“You can’t quote ‘I Have A Dream’ on MLK Day and then legislate against that dream every other day of the year,” Talarico said.
Legal experts said they’re not sure how much water Paxton’s opinion carries — if any.
The website for Paxton’s own office acknowledges that its opinions “cannot create new provisions in the law or correct unintended, undesirable effects of the law.”
“He can’t just declare that this is unconstitutional,” Andy Cates, a Texas ethics attorney, told the Texas Tribune of the AG’s opinion. “He can declare that he thinks it’s unconstitutional, but that doesn’t mean that it is.”
Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
Related Stories
Texas forecast to be top market for data centers in two years, increasing grid demand
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims MLK Jr. would be anti-DEI
San Antonio’s DreamWeek 2026 keeps spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. alive