After beating corruption charges and surviving an impeachment, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is now back in office. Now, he has set his sights on several big banks, such as JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, for violating Texas law. The law referenced is anti-discrimination legislation that punishes banks for refusing to do business with firearms companies, implementing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies, or refusing to do business with companies because Israelis own them.
“As Attorney General, my job is to uphold state law and ensure that Texas remains a friendly state for companies to do business—including those that produce the energy we depend on and the firearms that secure our safety and freedom. And given the recent brutal Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, it is more important than ever to enforce public policy supportive of one of America’s closest allies and a beacon of freedom in the Middle East,” the letter reads.
Texas laws prevent any bank that underwrites any municipal bonds in Texas from treating gun companies any differently from any other companies. This statute means that banks cannot refuse to do business with the firearms industry because they object to the products. Big banking institutions have been placed under immense pressure from anti-gun groups to drop firearms companies as customers.
Earlier this month, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called out Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, for cutting payroll services to gun companies.
QuickBooks is the leading accounting service for small to medium businesses. Under pressure from Sen. Cruz, the financial company quickly reversed course and, at the same time, released a statement explaining why they were planning to cut off services for the gun industry.
According to Intuit, they were being forced into the decision by the banks that handle its backend. The company was quick to point the finger at JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America. Allegedly, the two banking giants threatened Intuit into deciding not to do business with the firearms industry. The company only reversed course when Sen. Cruz’s office started an investigation.
“Governmental Entities should also consider other red flags. It is widely known in the public finance arena that my Public Finance Division has been reviewing the policies of JP Morgan and Bank of America as they relate to doing (or not doing) business with certain firearm entities. More recently, Intuit publicly reversed course from prohibiting firearm entities from using its software. According to Senator Ted Cruz, Intuit informed his office that JP Morgan and Bank of America had pressured it to adopt such anti-firearm-entity policies,” the letter reads.
AG Paxton also targets the Net Zero Banking Alliance, Institutional Shareholder Services, and Glass Lewis regarding their ESG policies.
ESG policies are far-left ideas that put social causes and environmental issues ahead of their fiduciary duties to customers. ESG policies have been used to funnel money from investors to left-wing causes, even if it means a far lower return on investment (ROI) for their customers.
ESG is the idea of the former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who sent a letter to the 50 largest financial institutions in the world in the early 2000s. Under “E,” companies have discriminated against energy companies because ESG only allows for working with “green” companies. Under “S” have led to companies adopting Critical Race Theory (CRT) training and forcing companies to pay for out-of-state abortions or risk being shut out of the banking industry.
“Moreover, governmental entities are not free to do business with firearm entity discriminators, energy company boycotters, or Israel boycotters merely because neither the Comptroller of Public Accounts nor the Attorney General has publicly designated them as such. Although Governmental Entities may not always be positioned to fully evaluate a company’s policies and practices, they may not turn a blind eye to publicly known conduct. When considering whether a company is an energy company boycotter, for instance, particular notice should be taken of whether the company is a member of the Net Zero Alliance or a signatory of any other similar entity that espouses a commitment to the furtherance of so-called Environmental, Social and Governance policies,” the letter reads.
The final thing Paxton warns of is financial companies participating in the boycott, divest, and sanction (BDS) movement.
The BDS movement has been championed by Hamas apologist Rep Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Talib (D-MI), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Cori Bush (D-MO). The BDS movement requires banking companies not to do business with Israel. AG Paxton calls Israel “one of America’s closest allies and a beacon of freedom in the Middle East.”
For the state to divest from these anti-gun companies like Citibank, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase will require action by Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar. Texans flooding the Comptroller’s phone lines is the only way to accomplish this.
Glenn Hegar’s office can be reached at (512) 463-4444.
OAG Advisory on SB 13 and 1… by AmmoLand Shooting Sports News
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
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