Texas again ordered to pay lawyers’ fees in redistricting case
In a scolding tone, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ordered the state of Texas on Tuesday to pay more than $1 million in attorneys fees in a case challenging district boundaries drawn by the Republican-led Legislature.
First under the direction of then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and now under Attorney General Ken Paxton the state has been fighting a court order for more than a year to pay the lawyers who battled the state over the issuance of redistricting maps for the Texas House, Texas Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. The judge in the case ruled in 2013 that there was evidence the maps were drawn with intentional discrimination, but a related U.S. Supreme Court ruling later that year put a halt to the Texas case.
Paxtons office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.
Attorney Chad Dunn, a lawyer for one of the parties seeking to get compensated, said that he and other lawyers have repeatedly asked the attorney generals office to pay fees their fees only to be stonewalled by the state, even in the face of a court order.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/texas-again-ordered-to-pay-lawyers-fees-in-redistr/nnMFT/
Cross-posted in LBN.