Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton does not have the authority to enforce a new rule that would compel district attorneys in the state’s most populous areas to share prosecutorial data with the state’s top lawyer, a state appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
The 15th Court of Appeals, a three-judge panel that consists of all Republicans, is the second court in the state to rule Paxton’s office does not have the authority to mandate district attorneys to hand over such information.
A Travis County district judge had previously temporarily blocked rules that gave Paxton meticulous access to the office records of urban district attorneys, some of whom sued Paxton in May.
