PAXTON LAUDS RULING IN WALLER CO. CASE

  

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is commending the Texas Supreme Court after it left intact a state appellate court decision.  That decision sanctioned Waller County for suing a private citizen who complained that the county was unlawfully banning firearms from its government building.

Paxton says the ruling “represents a huge win for individual freedom, the First Amendment and the right of citizens to participate in government.”

Paxton went on to say, “Waller County had to be stopped from using litigation to muzzle someone who simply called on it to stop violating state law.”

Paxton added this decision should deter other Texas governments from similar conduct.

Last March, the First Court of Appeals of Texas overturned a district court’s ruling that the county lacked jurisdiction to sue Terry Holcomb Sr., and that he had a constitutional right to ask the county to comply with Texas’ open carry laws.

The Texas Supreme Court decision means that the case will return to district court with instructions from the appeals court to follow the Texas Citizens Participation Act, protecting individual use of free speech.

Paxton filed his own lawsuit against Waller County in August 2016 to bring the county into compliance with the state’s licensed carry laws. The lawsuit requires the county to allow citizens to lawfully carry firearms in areas of the Waller County government building that contain non-judicial county administrative offices.