Ethics-challenged Rick Green, longtime sidekick of religious-right propagandist David Barton, is trying once again to win a seat on the Texas Supreme Court. He filed this week for the high court’s Place 5. He’ll face incumbent Paul Green in the Republican primary.
Rick Green co-hosts the WallBuilders Live! radio program with Barton. Barton is the founder and head of WallBuilders, a religious-right organization that portrays separation of church and state as a constitutional “myth” and argues that America’s founders intended to create a distinctly Christian nation with laws based on a fundamentalist reading of the Bible.
Green served two terms in the Texas House of Representatives, losing a re-election race in 2002. He also lost a 2010 race for the Supreme Court. When he filed for that last election, the Dallas Morning News noted Green’s ethics-challenged history in public office:
While in the House from 1998 to 2002, Green drew fire for using his Capitol office as the backdrop for a health supplement infomercial. He also came under scrutiny for successfully arguing before the parole board for early release of a man convicted of defrauding investors (who just happened to have loaned $400,000 to Green’s father’s company); allegedly pressuring the state health department on behalf of ephedrine maker Metabolife International, one of his law firm’s clients; and squeezing lobbyists to pony up at a fundraiser for a private foundation he started. He made Texas Monthly’s list of the 10 worst legislators.
TFN Insider also reported about Green’s 2010 Supreme Court bid here, noting his “Patriot Academy,” which teaches participants ages 16-25 about “America’s system of government from a Biblical worldview.” We asked in that post whether that “Biblical worldview” includes support for torture, noting that Green has compared torturing terrorist suspects to teasing by his sister.
In fact, Green has a history of spewing outrageous and repulsive nonsense. For example, he has compared food stamp recipients to wild animals. And he wondered on his Facebook page whether all mass murderers are Democrats.
When evangelical publisher Thomas Nelson pulled Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies from shelves because historians said it was filled with errors, Green took to his blog to compare Barton’s critics to Adolf Hitler. (He appears to have taken his blog offline. Fortunately, Internet archives don’t let nonsense like that disappear.)
And now Green is running for the Texas Supreme Court again. Republican voters in 2010 decided he was far too extreme to elect to such a position. We’ll see if the folks who vote in GOP primaries these days agree.
Please stop filtering money to your pals for alleged “border control” and START finding health and education initiatives in Texas!
Two days ago I was released from the hospital after spending 11 days recovering from my sixth heart attack brought on by Trump’s attack on a religion. I was so taken back that I had a sick feeling and the next thing I knew was I was in the wrong part of an ambulance.
After being intubated for three days I was moved to the next unit up.
So, I’m going to have to give up following politics or die and I much rather continue living.
How many slams to one’s morals can a person take before they reach the bottom? Dat’s me. Merry Christmas to all and I’ll see you after the 2016 elections next year.
Beverly: I hate to hear about the heart attack! Very glad you’re doing better and are home now. Take care of yourself!
A douché bag like Rick Green who gets in a fist fight is automatically unqualified to be a Supreme Court justice. I can just see him getting into a brawl with a SCJ who disagrees with his attempts to bring “Christian Sharia Law” to TX.