On Saturday, March 20, civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt announced that he plans to run for Texas Attorney General in 2022. However, whether he intends to help the Black community is questionable by many.
Merritt shared his announcement on Twitter, “Texas deserves an attorney general that will fight for the constitutional rights of all citizens.”
I am running for Attorney General of Texas.
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Texas deserves an attorney general that will fight for the constitutional rights of all citizens. pic.twitter.com/JhE9HSPc8q— S. Lee Merritt, Esq. (@MeritLaw) March 20, 2021
The lawyer said he plans to challenge Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been the state’s attorney general since 2014.
According to The Washington Post, Merritt is known for representing several Black families who have lost loved ones due to officer-involved police brutality.
Merritt has emerged time and time again at the center of the national debate over race and policing.
One of the attorney’s most notorious cases being the counsel who got a conviction against Amber Guyger, a white police officer accused of murdering her unarmed Black neighbor, Botham Jean. She was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Merritt represented Jean’s family and the family of Joshua Brown, a key witness in the case and neighbor of Jean’s who happened to be fatally shot 10 days after he testified against the officer involved.
Merritt claimed he had discovered a trail in police discrimination incidents against Dallas residents who need mental health care, which has often resulted in fatalities.
On the topic of Paxton, Merritt said, “Never mind that they’re veterans, that they’re medical students like Atatiana Jefferson, that they’re accountants like Botham Jean. They’re Black, and he just doesn’t see them.”
“He doesn’t see them,” he added.
While Merritt has been put in the spotlight, he has also had some punches and even seen himself in legal trouble.
Some in law enforcement have called him a cop-hater who spreads false information about officers in incidents where force is used.
Within the civil rights activist community, some view him as an opportunist who sweeps in on grieving families and ends up monopolizing the spotlight for his own personal gain.
On more than one occasion, he’s faced confrontation with leading Black Lives Matter activists over his methods and his association with Shaun King.
King is a civil rights activist known for using social media to promote social justice causes and was accused of mishandling funds.
In May 2018, Merritt, with King’s help, exaggerated a North Texas woman’s claim about a state trooper sexually assaulting her in a traffic stop.
The story turned out to be fabricated, and body camera footage finally exonerated the officer, who had been subjected to death threats due to the incident, which then prompted Merritt to apologize.
In another instance in 2018, a Texas district attorney filed a complaint with the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee against Merritt, alleging he was practicing Texas law without a license.
Merritt isn’t licensed to practice state law in Texas but said he practiced federal law exclusively in his cases, which is permitted.
Despite the distrust he’s experienced, Merritt is intent on continuing his journey for “justice.”
He told the publication that in light of the recent verdict in the Botham Jean case, he is optimistic about what lies ahead and said. “I think we’re slowly starting to see the tide turn.”
