Paxton asks Supreme Court to dismiss whistleblower lawsuit against him

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked the Texas Supreme Court to toss out a whistleblower lawsuit by four former officials who say they were improperly fired after accusing Paxton of accepting bribes and taking other improper acts. Paxton told the court that his agency "enjoys ... the right to fire its employees — especially employees whose political appointments require they act on behalf of the duly elected Attorney General — at will." Paxton also argued that he can't be sued because the Texas Whistleblower Act was intended to protect government employees from on-the-job retaliation by another public employee. "The Attorney General is not a 'public employee,'" said the appeal, filed Wednesday and made public Thursday. "Like the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and members of this Court, he is an elected officer, chosen by the people of Texas to exercise sovereign authority on their behalf."

Paxton made similar arguments before the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, but that court allowed the lawsuit to continue, ruling in October that the whistleblower act protects government workers from being fired for making "a good-faith report of illegal conduct ... by the employer." Interpreting the act to exclude elected officials as employers would create a substantial loophole that runs counter to the law's purpose of improving transparency and accountability, the 3rd Court ruled. The legal fight goes back to late September 2020, when eight high-ranking officials at the attorney general's office approached the FBI, Texas Rangers and the Travis County district attorney’s office to accuse Paxton of criminal conduct on behalf of Austin real estate investor Nate Paul. All eight resigned or were fired within two months. Four filed suit, arguing they were improperly fired: James Blake Brickman, deputy attorney general for policy and strategic initiatives; David Maxwell, director of the agency's law enforcement division; Mark Penley, deputy attorney general for criminal justice; and Ryan Vassar, deputy attorney general for legal counsel, the agency's top legal officer.