Boom Lowered: TX AG Ken Paxton Files Lawsuit Against San Antonio for Requested Documents on Chick-fil-A Ban

Image via TX AG Ken Paxton's Twitter feed.
Image via TX AG Ken Paxton’s Twitter feed.

Nearly two weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration announced it was launching investigations into the bans on Chick-fil-A restaurants at the San Antonio Airport and the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, Texas AG Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Antonio.

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Alleging that the city has so far not cooperated with the state’s investigation, which began in late March, Paxton said in a statement:

The Public Information Act ensures that “the people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know.” Nevertheless, the City of San Antonio has refused to comply with the Office of the Attorney General’s investigation, instead claiming an exemption to disclosure.

“The City of San Antonio claims that it can hide documents because it anticipates being sued,” Attorney General Paxton said. “But we’ve simply opened an investigation using the Public Information Act. If a mere investigation is enough to excuse the City of San Antonio from its obligation to be transparent with the people of Texas, then the Public Information Act is a dead letter. The city’s extreme position only highlights its fear about allowing any sunshine on the religious bigotry that animated its decision.”

In response to the lawsuit, San Antonio City Attorney Andy Segovia questioned Paxton’s ability to investigate the issue without bias:

“It is clear from the strident comments in his press release that any ‘investigation’ would be a pretense to justify his own conclusions,” Segovia said in a written statement. In addition, he said, Paxton has yet to specify what authority he is relying upon to investigate the airport contract.

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Paxton ordered his office to get involved in the controversy after the San Antonio city council voted in March to effectively ban the restaurant from their airport for seven years after a report from the liberal website Think Progress was released detailing Chick-fil-A’s 2017 charitable contributions.

The AG’s office is not the only branch of Texas’s government to step in. The Texas state legislature passed a “save Chick-fil-A” bill in May that Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is expected to sign.

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—Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–

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