Greg Abbott

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Greg Abbott bigraphy, stories - Texas Attorney General

Greg Abbott : biography

November 13, 1957 –

Gregory Wayne "Greg" Abbott, familytreelegends.com(born November 13, 1957) is the Texas Attorney General, and is the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve in that role. Abbott was sworn in on December 2, 2002, following John Cornyn’s election to the U.S. Senate. Prior to assuming the office of attorney general, Abbott was a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, a position to which he was initially appointed in 1995 by then-Governor George W. Bush. He is noted outside the state of Texas for successfully advocating the ability of the state of Texas to display the Ten Commandments in front of the state Capitol in Austin in a 2005 United States Supreme Court case known as Van Orden v. Perry.

Sources from WFAA-TV, ABC 8 Dallas confirm that Abbott has told donors he will seek the Texas Governor’s Office in the 2014 gubernatorial election.

Texas Attorney General (2002-Present)

2002 election

Abbott resigned from the Supreme Court in 2001 to seek the open attorney general’s position in 2002. The previous Attorney General John Cornyn vacated the post to run for the U.S. Senate. Abbott defeated the Democratic nominee, former Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, 57%-41%.http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=1509

Tenure

Abbott has described his job as "I go into the office in the morning, I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home."http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2013/feb/19/abbott-shares-views-with-local-republicans/

Lawsuit against Sony BMG

On November 21, 2005, Abbott sued Sony BMG. Texas is the first state in the nation to bring legal action against Sony BMG for illegal spyware. The suit is also the first filed under the state’s spyware law of 2005. It alleges the company surreptitiously installed the spyware on millions of compact music discs (CDs) that consumers inserted into their computers when they play the CDs, which can compromise the systems.http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=1266, oag.state.tx.us. http://news.com.com/Texas+sues+Sony+BMG+over+alleged+spyware/2100-7350_3-5964995.html?tag=nl On December 21, 2005 Abbott added new allegations to his lawsuit against Sony-BMG. Abbott says the MediaMax copy protection technology violates the state’s spyware and deceptive trade practices laws. He says Sony-BMG offered consumers a licensing agreement when they bought CDs and played them on their computers. But, Abbott alleges in the lawsuit that even if consumers reject that agreement, spyware is secretly installed on their computers, which pose security risks for music buyers. Abbott said "We keep discovering additional methods Sony used to deceive Texas consumers who thought they were simply buying music", and "Thousands of Texans are now potential victims of this deceptive game Sony played with consumers for its own purposes." In addition to violations of the Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act of 2005, which allows for civil penalties of $100,000 for each violation of the law, the alleged violations added in the updated lawsuit, on December 21, 2005, carry maximum penalties of $20,000 per violation.http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2005/12/19/daily31.html, dallas.bizjournals.com.http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2005/12/19/daily32.html, sanantonio.bizjournals.com.

Van Orden v. Perry

On March 2, 2005, Abbott appeared before the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., where he defended a Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds. Dozens of similar monuments were donated to cities and towns across the nation throughout the 1960s by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, who were inspired by the 1956 epic The Ten Commandments; in doing so, they gained the support of the film’s director Cecil B. DeMille. The Supreme Court held in a 5-4 majority opinion, found the Texas display did not violate the Establishment Clause and was constitutional.

2006 election

In the November 7 general election, Abbott was challenged by civil rights attorney David Van Os, who had been his Democratic opponent in the 1998 election for state Supreme Court. He won re-election to a second term 60%-37%.http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=243928