Ken Paxton, in His Official Capacity as Attorney General for the State of Texas and the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Texas v. Delia Garza, in Her Official Capacity as Travis County Attorney; John Creuzot, in His Official Capacity as Dallas County Criminal District Attorney; And Brian Middleton, in His Official Capacity as District Attorney of Fort Bend County (268th Judicial District)

ACCEPTED 15-25-00116-CV FIFTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS 9/22/2025 12:00 AM Ron Beal CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE Professor Emeritus & Attorney at Law CLERK 2530 Wooddale Circle RECEIVED IN 15th COURT OF APPEALS Waco, TX 76710 AUSTIN, TEXAS (254) 366-4198 9/22/2025 12:00:00 AM [email protected] CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE Clerk 15th Court of Appeals September 20, 2025 P.O. Box 12852 Austin, Texas 78711 Re: Paxton v. Garza Case No. 15-25-00116-CV Amicus Letter Brief Dear Honorable Justices of the 15th Court of Appeals: I am receiving absolutely no compensation for the preparation, writing, and filing of this amicus brief and merely do so to protect the integrity and legitimacy of the rulemaking process.

I have reviewed all briefs filed in anticipation of oral argument and they are excellent. However, the Attorney General and Solicitor General have ignored and failed to mention a critical, vital issue that resolves the issues in this appeal, and it bears repeating.

Time and again, the Solicitor General in his writings states this is simply an issue of ordinary statutory construction. Merely, this Court should determine the reasonable meaning of the statutory provisions and apply them. Thus, since the relevant provision sets forth the Appellees “shall” follow the Attorney General directions, it clearly implies that one interpretation of the statute is the Attorney General was granted the power by the Legislature to adopt rules that have the force and effect of law.

That is simply legally incorrect. This is not an ordinary issue wherein the Legislature by statute set forth a new mandate for citizens to follow and empowered the Attorney General the power to enforce it. Instead, this is an issue of constitutional interpretation. Why so?

Since the Solicitor General asserts the statute is a grant of rulemaking power, the fundamental issue is whether the Legislature intended to give up and grant its constitutional power to adopt law to the Attorney General, and thereby, reduce the Legislature’s constitutional grant to do the same. Thus, this Court must look beyond the mere wording in the specific statutory section and analyze the relevant statutes in their entirety in light of the fact that all lawmaking power is vested in one Legislature.

This Court has held that it will give less deference to an agency interpretation when the legislative intent is at issue rather than the application of technical or regulatory matters within the agency’s expertise, for this Court will give less deference to an agency interpretation when it is not within the agency expertise, In re Smith, 333 S.W.3d 582, 588 (Tex. 2011). The decision to make a raw grant of rulemaking power to an agency is purely a constitutional issue and the agency totally lacks the expertise as to when that should be done. Only the Legislature can decide whether certain acts of its citizens should be within the prerogative of the Legislature or do we need an agency to determine what type of acts are causing the problems and then prohibit them by rule?

Why so? The Constitution vests exclusive power to legislate upon the Legislature, TEX. CONST. Art. III Section 1. No other branch may exercise such power, Id. at Section 1. In the ordinary course of government, legislative action should be accepted by the executive and judicial branches, In re Commitment of Fisher, 164 S.W.3d 637, 645 (Tex. 2005).

Thus, this is not just an issue of what a statute means, this is an issue of constitutional concern to protect the power of the Legislature particularly when the agency asserts that it is implied.

In addition, as I set forth in my amicus, (Beal, p. 3), the words of “adopt rules” or engage in the act of “rulemaking” are in fact “magic words.” No case in the history of Texas jurisprudence has ever rejected that the Legislature, by using such words, intended to delegate rulemaking power. And, such wording by the Legislature and the Courts has been utilized long before the adoption of the APA, Humble Oil& Refining Co. v. Railroad Commission of Texas, 128 S.W.2d 9, 15 (Tex. 1939).

If the Legislature does not use such “magic words,” as I set forth in my amicus, (Beal p. 3), this Court has never held the Legislature must expressly negate within the statute that they rejected giving the agency such power.

That is bolstered by the fact that in the statutes setting forth the powers of the Attorney General, the Legislature specifically used magic words to carve out six discrete areas where the Attorney General could adopt rules. As to the power of the Attorney General to request information, the lack of use of such words is absolutely deafening. This Court has long held that the failure to utilize certain words within one part of statute, but in fact included them within another part, the omission is considered intentional, In re Bell, 91 S.W.3d 784, 790 (Tex. 2002), Kappus v. Kappus, 284 S.W.3d 831, 835 (Tex. 2009), City of Rockwall v. Hughes, 246 S.W.3d 621, 629 (Tex. 2008).

I establish in my amicus, (Beal p. 3-4) the only words found to confer rulemaking power other than the magic words are the power to “regulate.” That has a clear legal meaning that incorporates the power of the agency to adopt a complex regulatory scheme including mandatory rules. It is simply ludicrous to argue that when the Legislature informed the DAs and County Attorneys that they “shall” comply with the directions of the Attorney General as to providing information was in fact the creation of a regulatory scheme that gave the Attorney General unstated powers to punish and penalize them, is simply more than the text will bear.

Sincerely, /s/ Ron Beal Ron Beal Attorney at Law Bar no.24005041 2530 Wooddale Circle Waco, TX 76710 254-366-4198 [email protected]

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE I certify that this document was produced on a computer using Microsoft Word and contains words 1205, as determined by the computer’s software’s word count function, excluding the sections of the document listed in Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure 9.4(i)(1).

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that a true and correct copy of the foregoing document has been served on September 20, 2025, by e-file and/or electronic mail in accordance with the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure to the following:

/s/ Leslie W. Dippel Leslie W. Dippel State Bar No. 00796472 [email protected] Todd A. Clark State Bar No. 04298850 [email protected] Cynthia W. Veidt State Bar No. 24028092 [email protected] Travis County Attorneys DELIA GARZA TRAVIS COUNTY ATTORNEY P.O. Box 1748 Austin, TX 78767 Tel.: (512) 854-9513 Fax: (512) 854-4808 Counsel for Appellees Delia Garza, in her Official Capacity as Travis County Attorney, José P. Garza, in his Official Capacity as Travis County District Attorney, and Travis County /s/Justin C. Pfeiffer Justin C.

Pfeiffer State Bar No. 24091473 [email protected] Gavrilov & Brooks, PC P.O. Box 56632 Houston, TX 77256 Tel.: (832) 312-7900 Attorney for Appellee Brian M. Middleton, in his Official Capacity as Fort Bend County District Attorney (268th Judicial District) /s/ Bradley W. Snead Jonathan G.C. Fombonne Deputy County Attorney & First Assistant State Bar No. 24102702 [email protected] Tiffany S. Bingham Managing Counsel Affirmative & Special Litigation Division State Bar No. 24012287 [email protected] Christopher Garza Deputy Division Director Affirmative & Special Litigation Division State Bar No. 24078543 [email protected] Office of the Harris County Attorney CHRISTIAN D.MENEFEE HARRIS COUNTY ATTORNEY 1019 Congress Plaza, 15th Floor Houston, TX 77002 Tel.: (713) 274- 5101 Fax: (713) 755-8924 Counsel for Appellees El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya, El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez, and El Paso County /s/Michael Satin Alexandria Oberman State Bar No. 24131555 [email protected] Michael J. Statin (pro hac vice application forthcoming) [email protected] Laura G. Ferguson (pro hac vice application forthcoming) [email protected] MILLER &CHEVALIER CHARTERED 900 16th Street, NW Washington, DC 20006 Tel.: (202) 626-5800 Fax: (202) 626-5801 Counsel for Appellees Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot; Dallas County; Criminal District Attorney Joe Gonzales; and Bexar County /s/Randy T. Leavitt C. Robert Heath State Bar No. 09347500 [email protected] BICKERSTAFF HEATH DELGADO ACOSTA 1601 S. Mopac Expy., Suite 400 Austin, TX 78746 Tel.: (512) 404-7821 R Randy T. Leavitt State Bar No. 12098300 [email protected] LAW OFFICE OF RANDY T.

LEAVITT 1301 Rio Grande St. Austin, TX 78701 Tel.: (512) 476-4475 Attorneys for Appellee Shawn M. Dick in his Official Capacity as Williamson County District Attorney (26th Judicial District) William H. Farrell Assistant Attorney General [email protected] General Litigation Division Office of the Attorney General P.O. Box 12548, Capitol Station Austin, TX 78711 Counsel for Appellants /s/ Ron Beal Ron Beal Automated Certificate of eService This automated certificate of service was created by the efiling system.

The filer served this document via email generated by the efiling system on the date and to the persons listed below. The rules governing certificates of service have not changed. Filers must still provide a certificate of service that complies with all applicable rules.

Ronald Beal on behalf of Ronald Beal Bar No. 24005041 [email protected] Envelope ID: 105869685 Filing Code Description: Letter Filing Description: Letter Status as of 9/22/2025 7:29 AM CST Associated Case Party: Harris County Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Christopher Garza 24078543 [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Jonathan Fombonne 24102702 [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Tiffany Bingham 24012287 [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Bradely W.Snead [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Andrea Mintzer [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Andrea Mintzer [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: JoseP.Garza Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Cynthia Veidt 24028092 [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Christina Sanchez 24062984 [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Leslie W.Dippel [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Case Contacts Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Maria Williamson [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Nicole A.Myette [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Nancy Villarreal [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT William Farrell [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Amanda Ruch [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Leslie W. Dippel [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Automated Certificate of eService This automated certificate of service was created by the efiling system.

The filer served this document via email generated by the efiling system on the date and to the persons listed below. The rules governing certificates of service have not changed. Filers must still provide a certificate of service that complies with all applicable rules.

Ronald Beal on behalf of Ronald Beal Bar No. 24005041 [email protected] Envelope ID: 105869685 Filing Code Description: Letter Filing Description: Letter Status as of 9/22/2025 7:29 AM CST Case Contacts Leslie W. Dippel [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Todd A. Clark [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Jonathan G.C. Fombonne [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Tiffany S. Bingham [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Christopher Garza [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Justin C. Pfeiffer [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Christina Sanchez [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Bernardo Rafael Cruz [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT C. RobertHeath [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Joshua Woods [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Bradley W.Snead [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Michael Adams-Hurta [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Cynthia W.Veidt [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT William H. Farrell [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM ERROR Cynthia W. Veidt [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM ERROR Randy T. Leavitt [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Alexandria Oberman [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Michael J. Statin [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM ERROR Laura G. Ferguson [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Amy Pollock [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: Ken Paxton, in his Official Capacity as Attorney General of Texas Automated Certificate of eService This automated certificate of service was created by the efiling system.

The filer served this document via email generated by the efiling system on the date and to the persons listed below. The rules governing certificates of service have not changed. Filers must still provide a certificate of service that complies with all applicable rules.

Ronald Beal on behalf of Ronald Beal Bar No. 24005041 [email protected] Envelope ID: 105869685 Filing Code Description: Letter Filing Description: Letter Status as of 9/22/2025 7:29 AM CST Associated Case Party: Ken Paxton, in his Official Capacity as Attorney General of Texas Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status William FCole [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Ben Mendelson [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT William H. Farrell H.Farrell [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM ERROR Eric Abels [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Jacob Beach [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Cruezot Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Alexandria Oberman [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Katharine Tafuri [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Alexandria Oberman Oberman [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Michael J.Satin [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Laura G.Ferguson [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: Delia Garza Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Leslie W.Dippel [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Automated Certificate of eService This automated certificate of service was created by the efiling system.

The filer served this document via email generated by the efiling system on the date and to the persons listed below. The rules governing certificates of service have not changed. Filers must still provide a certificate of service that complies with all applicable rules.

Ronald Beal on behalf of Ronald Beal Bar No. 24005041 [email protected] Envelope ID: 105869685 Filing Code Description: Letter Filing Description: Letter Status as of 9/22/2025 7:29 AM CST Associated Case Party: El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Melissa Contreras [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Isela Baeza [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Isela Jones [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Pamela Lopez [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Bernardo Cruz [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: El Paso County Attorney Christina Sancez Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Bernardo Cruz [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: El Paso County Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Bernardo Cruz [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Joe Gonzales Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Michael J. Satin [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT Alexandria Oberman [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT

Associated Case Party: Dallas County Automated Certificate of eService This automated certificate of service was created by the efiling system.

The filer served this document via email generated by the efiling system on the date and to the persons listed below. The rules governing certificates of service have not changed. Filers must still provide a certificate of service that complies with all applicable rules.

Ronald Beal on behalf of Ronald Beal Bar No. 24005041 [email protected] Envelope ID: 105869685 Filing Code Description: Letter Filing Description: Letter Status as of 9/22/2025 7:29 AM CST Associated Case Party: Dallas County Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status Alexandria Oberman [email protected] 9/20/2025 2:34:47 PM SENT