Ken Paxton Bags Another Loss in Battle Against Shield Laws

There have been zero wins for the Texas attorney general when it comes to his mission to defeat shield laws.

By Danielle Han | November 3, 2025 | 4:30pm

Photo: Getty Images Abortion Politics

Ken Paxton Bags Another Loss in Battle Against Shield Laws

It’s nearly the one-year anniversary of when Texas’ anti-abortion attorney general, Ken Paxton, filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against a New York doctor who allegedly mailed abortion pills to a woman in Texas in 2024. In December, Paxton sued Dr. Margaret Carpenter, claiming she violated Texas’s near-total abortion ban, seeking a $113,000 fine and the loss of her license. As of Friday, there’s officially been, *checks notes*, absolutely zero wins for Paxton when it comes to his mission to defeat shield laws.

A quick recap: Paxton’s original lawsuit against Carpenter was shot down by Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck in March. After demanding Bruck reconsider, he was, again, shot down by Bruck in July. At the time, the clerk wrote in a statement: “Resubmitting the same materials does not alter the outcome. While I’m not entirely sure how things work in Texas, here in New York, a rejection means the matter is closed.”

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Paxton then threw a fit and submitted a court order against Bruck for refusing to comply. That lawsuit was shot down by a New York judge on Friday.

“Dr. Carpenter’s conduct falls squarely within the definition of ‘legally protected health activity,’” Justice David Gandin wrote in his ruling, according to the Times Union. Carpenter’s work, he added, was “the precise type of conduct (the shield law) was designed to protect.”

New York tells the most crooked AG in the country to go fuck himself.

Telling Ken Paxton to go fuck himself should be a national pastime.

www.texastribune.org/2025/10/31/t…

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— JonZoidberg (@jonzoidberg.xyz) November 1, 2025 at 11:46 AM

The move comes two months after New York AG Letitia James (D) formally notified Gandin she’d be interfering with Paxton’s lawsuits in November, and that she would ramp up the legal battle on whether Texas can enforce abortion laws across state lines. At the time, the New York Times reported that Paxton’s case against Bruck could eventually make its way to the Supreme Court. Gandin, however, denied the motion—saying the constitutionality of New York’s shield law was not a problem in the case at hand.

“It was very refreshing to read the judge’s decision,” Bruck told the Times Union on Friday. “The law seemed obvious to us, but since it was untested, certain people had questions about it.”

Simply put, shield laws allow providers—such as Carpenter—to prescribe abortion pills via telemedicine to anyone in the country, even if they’re in a state where abortion is banned. Nearly 20 states in the U.S. have some form of these protections; at the end of 2024, an estimated 1 in 4 abortions were provided remotely, thanks, in part, to shield laws. Because of this, in July, Paxton, along with 14 other anti-abortion AGs, pleaded to Congress that the entire shield law system be taken down.

About a month after Paxton filed his original lawsuit, a Louisiana jury indicted Dr.Carpenter for reportedly mailing abortion pills to a woman in their state, which also has a near-total abortion ban. (On Friday, New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected another request to extradite her.)

The state now has 30 days to appeal the rulings, though it has not specified whether it plans to. Paxton’s office did not respond to Jezebel’s request for comment. He’s probably busy tending to other legal matters.

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