Civil rights attorney is ready to battle for AG post

Civil rights attorney S. Lee Merritt expected to get crossways with Republicans when he moved to Dallas in 2015.

In a sense, that’s why he came to Texas in the first place.

“Where do you go if you want to change the face of civil rights in this country?” Merritt asked Wednesday during an interview at the Ion about his campaign to be the Democratic nominee for attorney general.

You go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, he continued, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The 5th Circuit regularly produces some of the most conservative opinions in the country on a variety of topics, including those Merritt has focused on since becoming an attorney, such as qualified immunity and police accountability.

“It’s a place where civil rights attorneys go to be targeted,” Merritt said cheerfully.

Merritt is not a a man who shies away from a fight, and that was true even before he launched his first campaign for statewide office last July. If elected, he would be the first Black attorney general in the state’s history.

Merritt began his career as an educator, teaching in Camden.

N.J., via the Teach for America program after graduating from Morehouse College in Atlanta. The graduate of Temple University law school became an attorney so he could do more, and since then he has: as the founder of the Merritt Law Firm, he’s taken on civil rights cases across the nation, representing victims of police brutality and other forms of racial injustice.

In 2017, Merritt represented the family of Jordan Edwards, a 15-year-old boy who was fatally shot by a police officer in Balch Springs; Edwards was Black, and the officer who killed him was found guilty of his murder. In 2018, Merritt became the attorney for the family of Atatiana Jefferson, a Black woman who was fatally shot in her own home by a Fort Worth police officer; that officer has been charged with murder and is scheduled to stand trial later this year.

Merritt also represents the family of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25year-old Black man from Georgia who was shot and killed after

being chased by three white men while jogging one afternoon near his home in February 2020. The three assailants were found guilty of Arbery’s murder in November and on Friday were sentenced to life in prison.

As a result of this type of work, Merritt was summarily hauled into court by the Texas Supreme Court’s Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee — did you know such a thing even exists? — and accused of practicing state law without a license. Since he was not doing that, the charges were soon dropped.

The whole episode, in Merritt’s assessment, was business as usual in a sense: civil rights lawyers in Southern states, in particular, have frequently faced such pushback.

“When I came to Texas, I signed up for it,” he told me. “I’m a history major from Morehouse College, and, you know, when I said I was inspired by the Thurgood Marshalls of the world — it was their whole story. My heroes often paid for their convictions with their lives.”

“Not to get biblical,” he continued, “but the Bible says, ‘Count it all joy.’”

The Democratic primary is a contested one. Merritt is vying with former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski, former ACLU attorney Rochelle Garza, Dallas-based attorney Stephen “T-Bone” Raynor,and Mike Fields, a former Republican criminal court-at-law judge in Harris County.

Republicans are having a lively primary in this race too, with Attorney General Ken Paxton drawing challenges from Land Commissioner George P. Bush, conservative East Texas congressman Louie Gohmert and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzmán. Paxton has been under indictment since 2015 on felony securities fraud charges, a case that has yet to go to trial; he maintains his innocence.

Many political observers believe Paxton will make it through the primary, buoyed by the endorsement of former President Donald J. Trump. Still, all the activity in the attorney general’s race this year is a measure of the fact that Paxton is perceived as vulnerable.

He won re-election by less than 4 points against Democrat Justin Nelson in 2018, the year of the Democrats’ “blue wave” in many parts. He’s subsequently distinguished himself largely by his devotion to the disgraced ex-president, including a lawsuit challenging the election results in four states that Democrat Joe Biden won: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the suit, finding Texas lacked standing to bring it.

“One of the reasons I was able to connect with (Georgia Attorney General) Chris Carr is because he was being sued by the Texas attorney general,” Merritt noted, explaining that Carr had been clear-sighted about the need for Arbery’s killers to face justice.

Merritt’s campaign is one to watch as the March 1 Texas primary approaches.

His unequivocal advocacy on racial justice and other civil rights issues may be unsettling for some moderate Democrats, who would prefer statewide candidates to focus on the center — that vast swath of political terrain that Republicans, including Paxton, have largely abandoned.

Merritt has the backing, however, of progressive groups such as the Texas Organizing Project, which endorsed his bid for the Democratic nomination last month. He also has a compelling case to make to voters, especially Black and brown voters, who have watched as Republican state leaders have systematically undermined voting rights and political representation in Texas.

The deck is not stacked in favor of civil rights attorneys, Merritt observed dryly. Still, he’s played a role in some historic fights.

“I’m not trying to preach at you this morning, but sticking with the biblical reference, I have the experience of beating the lion and beating the bear,” Merritt said Wednesday.

He added, simply: “I know that we can win, and I’m not scared of them.”