Williamson, Fort Bend County DAs sue Texas AG over same rule others counties also suing over

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The district attorneys for Williamson County and Fort Bend County filed a lawsuit on May 16 against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over a rule that would require them the send case files to Paxton’s office.

Williamson County DA Shawn Dick, a Republican, said in a Thursday announcement that the rule could cost the county and was “a trap for local prosecutors.”

“Attempts to comply with these rules could cost our county millions of dollars, endanger our ability to do our job and destroy a fundamental principle of our government — separation of powers,” he said. “The rules he is seeking to enforce are confusing, complex, misleading, and in some cases impossible to comply with.”

Fort Bend County DA Brian M. Middleton is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Both counties include land in two of Texas’ largest metro areas, Austin and Houston.

The rule is the same one that elected attorneys in Travis and El Paso counties sued the AG over. Elected attorneys in Dallas County and Harris County also filed their own lawsuit on the same grounds.

Paxton responded in a statement sent to KXAN Friday evening:

“Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick has joined a coalition of the most radical district attorneys in Texas to conceal information from the public about his job performance,” Paxton said. “This lawsuit is meritless and merely a sad, desperate attempt to hide information from the public he is sworn to protect. The DA reporting rule is a simple, straightforward, commonsense measure that will shed light on local officials who are abdicating their responsibility to public safety.”

Dick said Paxton’s “unprecedented power grab” has the potential to subvert the will of local voters. Voters first elected Dick as their DA in 2016, and reelected him in uncontested races in 2020 and 2024.

“The residents of Williamson County have entrusted me for a third term to maintain the integrity of our criminal justice system and to keep our community safe,” Dick said in the release. “My prosecutors answer only to me, and I answer only to Williamson County voters — not Ken Paxton.”

We asked the AG for a separate response to the Middleton and Dick’s lawsuit, and will update this story if we receive one.

“His new rules are the very same unconstitutional overreach and overregulation Paxton purports to fight on a daily basis,” Dick said. “With these rules, Paxton has written his own law, passed his own law, will interpret his own law, and will enforce his own law.”

All three lawsuits were filed in the Travis County District Court.

If one of the cases reach the Texas Supreme Court, it is possible that the high court could issue a ruling applicable to both cases. However, a lower court could issue an injunction the blocks the rule’s enforcement temporarily for both plaintiff groups.