Upon shouting at police in an attempt to divert their attention from his friend during a confrontation, appellee was arrested for "wilfully . . . interrupt[ing] a city policeman . . . by verbal challenge during an investigation" in violation of a municipal ordinance making it unlawful for any person "to assault, strike or in any manner oppose, molest, abuse or interrupt any policeman in the execution of his duty." After his acquittal in Municipal Court, appellee brought suit in Federal District Court challenging the ordinance's constitutionality and seeking, inter alia, damages and attorney's fees. The District Court held that the ordinance was not unconstitutionally vague or overbroad on its face, but the Court of Appeals reversed, finding that the ordinance was substantially overbroad since its literal wording punished and might deter a significant range of protected speech.

The improbable ascent of the self-styled “Mexican biker lawyer” to a top law enforcement job two years ago speaks to the profound change sweeping dozens of local prosecutors offices across the country. From deep on the Gulf Coast to Denver, Chicago and Philadelphia, voters in recent years have been turning to a new wave of district attorneys pushing a boldly liberal agenda.

They are freezing the use of the death penalty, decriminalizing marijuana possession, diverting low-level offenders to classes and treatment instead of jail, seeking less severe sentences, and vowing to aggressively prosecute police-involved shootings.
In a field that is 95 percent white and overwhelmingly male, many are minorities, women or gays and hail from unlikely backgrounds, such as civil rights work or the public defender’s office.

The push intensified in the midterm elections, with liberal groups including a political action committee funded by George Soros, the American Civil Liberties Union and a political action committee created by Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King contributing millions of dollars or resources to expand this still relatively small pool of progressive prosecutors. They had notable successes in Boston, Dallas and San Antonio, as well as in the race for Delaware attorney general, an office that handles criminal cases.

The improbable ascent of the self-styled “Mexican biker lawyer” to a top law enforcement job two years ago speaks to the profound change sweeping dozens of local prosecutors offices across the country. From deep on the Gulf Coast to Denver, Chicago and Philadelphia, voters in recent years have been turning to a new wave of district attorneys pushing a boldly liberal agenda.

They are freezing the use of the death penalty, decriminalizing marijuana possession, diverting low-level offenders to classes and treatment instead of jail, seeking less severe sentences, and vowing to aggressively prosecute police-involved shootings.
In a field that is 95 percent white and overwhelmingly male, many are minorities, women or gays and hail from unlikely backgrounds, such as civil rights work or the public defender’s office.

The push intensified in the midterm elections, with liberal groups including a political action committee funded by George Soros, the American Civil Liberties Union and a political action committee created by Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King contributing millions of dollars or resources to expand this still relatively small pool of progressive prosecutors. They had notable successes in Boston, Dallas and San Antonio, as well as in the race for Delaware attorney general, an office that handles criminal cases.

An energized Democratic electorate wasn’t enough to defeat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz this month, but in the state’s most populous county, it created a blue landslide.

Nearly every Republican in Harris County, home to Houston, was unseated on Nov. 6, including 59 judges and the top executive, Ed Emmett, a moderate who won in 2014 with 83% of the vote.

Mr. Emmett, whose official title is county judge and who was widely lauded for steering the county through the devastation of Hurricane Harvey last year, lost to political novice Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat who said she has never previously attended a meeting of the Harris County Commissioners Court, which she will soon oversee. The 27-year-old won by less than 2 percentage points and will now help run a metro area that encompasses some 4.6 million people, the third-most-populous county in the U.S.

The Harris County election drew national attention in part because 17 African-American women, all Democrats, won judgeships, a symbolic shift for one of the nation’s most diverse cities. But it also demonstrates the growing political divide between more liberal cities and conservative rural areas that is evident even in red states like Texas, where every elected statewide official is a Republican.