A coalition of Democrat prosecutors is challenging Attorney General Ken Paxton’s power to demand reports from local district and county attorneys, claiming it is unconstitutional and burdensome.
The trial court recently agreed with the plaintiffs, issuing a permanent injunction that blocked the rules from being enforced. The injunction is currently being considered by the Fifteenth Court of Appeals in Austin.
Background
At the center of the dispute is a set of reporting rules Paxton’s office instituted in 2025, which mandated initial, quarterly, and annual reports related to criminal matters that were in the interest of the state. The rules set forth the time, form, and content of materials that district and county attorneys serving populations of 400,000 or more must report to the Attorney General.
Before the rules took effect on April 2, 2025, three Democrat prosecutors filed a lawsuit seeking to block the new rules from being enforced.
Plaintiffs include Travis County Attorney Delia Garza, Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot, and Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton—all Democrats.
They argued that state officials “may not adopt rules without express authority granted by the Constitution or the Legislature. Yet that is what the Attorney General did here.”
“The Challenged Rules establish an unprecedented executive-branch regulatory regime over select large-county prosecutors. District and county attorneys are officers of the judicial branch, not the executive branch,” the plaintiffs claimed.
