After a district and appellate court both rejected arguments from the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) that Attorney General Ken Paxton’s firings of several senior-ranking aides are not subject to the Texas Whistleblower Act, the OAG is pleading their case before the Supreme Court of Texas (SCOTX).
First reported by Austin American-Statesman reporter Chuck Lindell, the OAG filed its petition to SCOTX on Wednesday evening, the day it was due and over two months since the state’s Third Court of Appeals ruled against the OAG’s motion.
The arguments contained within the new petition are largely the same as what the office had argued at the lower-level courts.
“If expanded to include reports against elected officers, the Whistleblower Act transfers some of the most important personnel decisions in the State — those regarding every elected officer’s most senior and confidential staff — to the judicial branch,” argues the petition.
Conversely, the whistleblowers’ attorneys and the Third Court of Appeals concluded that such an interpretation to exclude elected officials from the protections afforded by the Whistleblower Act “would have the effect of stripping whistleblower protections from employees who might report misconduct by the thousands of elected officials throughout the State — particularly by those who direct and lead the agencies of this State.”
In the conclusion of its new petition, the OAG urged SCOTX to consider the matter since similar cases from other...
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