Overview
- A three-judge panel of the Fifteenth Court of Appeals, all Republican appointees, unanimously upheld a preliminary injunction against the rules.
- The court narrowed the injunction to the seven offices that sued, including prosecutors in Harris, Dallas and Bexar counties, leaving no statewide bar on enforcement.
- Justice Scott K. Field wrote that the Legislature did not grant the attorney general rulemaking power, and Chief Justice Scott Brister cited a 2023 law limiting AG information requests to written, case-specific inquiries.
- The rules targeted counties over 400,000 residents and would have required initial, quarterly and annual reports, internal policies and communications, and case files, with noncompliance deemed potential official misconduct.
- Prosecutors showed likely immediate harm through heavy staff time, diversion from prosecutions and risks to confidential materials, and the case now returns to Travis County district court for further proceedings.