By james art 
The Supreme Court of Texas will soon decide on a dispute related to governor Greg Abbot and Prosecutor General Ken Paxon against the guard group looking for text messages from their offices.
This is important for the rest of us because it has a reflection on the State Open Records Act.
It is a pledge who has the power to force the highest leaders in the country to produce public documents. As Abbott and Paxton’s attorneys say, only the Texas Supreme Court can order Paxton to record and in the case of the governor, no one can. The Guardian Group’s attorneys, US Supervision, based in Washington, say the Texas Law on Public Information explicitly enables district courts to order government officials to comply with this law without exception.
Texas once stood high among other states because of the power of its laws on public transparency. Until Paxon came, the Prosecutor General Prosecutor’s Office was running a disciplined department of open records under Abbot, and before him, under Senator John Cornin. State legislation allows people to request public records from government agencies. If there is a question whether the recording is to be published, government workers must seek an opinion from the Prosecutor General.
Now, US supervision accuses Paxon and Abbot of withholding information that is said to be public. Three years ago, the group sought text messages and communications from ABBOTT and Paxton offices, connected by January 6, 2021, and shootings at Uvalde School in 2022. Both offices released some recordings that were heavily edited and denied, claiming to claim for legal workings. The offices said they had no responsive documents regarding communications with weapons groups and other issues. US supervision said these explanations are not reliable on the basis of public statements.
The oral arguments were shown by the judges of the Supreme Court of the State, who are struggling with valid issues regarding possible inconsistencies in state legislation. The moment of telling us was an exchange between Jeff Boyd and Assistant General Beth Clusman. He asked if the public had a cure in a hypothetical case of “bad AG”, which incorrectly holds the documents. She said she may not.
“We assume that government officials follow the law,” Clusman said.
This is a suggestion that Paxon, our ethically contested Attorney General, is constantly testing.
We question whether there is any appetite in the legislature to review the Public Information Act to clarify who can force Abbot or Paxon to draw up public records. Abbot and Paxon will not tolerate disagreement. But we cannot imagine that the wise legislators who have developed the Public Information Act, intended to raise the governor and the prosecutor General for a preview.
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