The Texas Fifteenth Court of Appeals has upheld a final judgment declaring Attorney General Ken Paxton’s prosecutor reporting rules invalid and barring their enforcement against the prosecutors and counties that challenged them.
In an Oct. 1 memorandum opinion, the court said Texas Government Code Section 41.006 does not give the attorney general authority to create rules imposing those reporting requirements. The rules would have required prosecutors in Texas’s largest counties to submit extensive information about criminal matters, including case files and other sensitive records.
Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot was among the prosecutors who brought the lawsuit, along with officials from Travis, El Paso, Bexar, Harris, Fort Bend and Williamson counties. The appeals court affirmed the trial court’s final judgment, which declared the rules invalid and permanently barred their enforcement against the plaintiffs.
The ruling addresses the attorney general’s authority to establish these broad, formal rules. It does not decide whether the attorney general can request information from local prosecutors on an individual basis. The court specifically said that question was outside the scope of this appeal.
“This is another important victory for the rule of law and for the independence of locally elected prosecutors,” Creuzot said in a statement released by his office.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said the litigation has cost the county more than $227,000 and that it expects Paxton to oppose reimbursing those costs. The release also noted that Paxton may ask the Texas Supreme Court to review the latest ruling.
Sources: Fifteenth Court of Appeals opinion; Dallas County District Attorney’s Office press release.
