Thread by @lmcgaughy

FYI: Last night, Texas AG Ken Paxton said he was appealing the temporary injunction halting abuse investigations into transgender youth.

He says his appeal will allow the state to continue its investigations, effectively reversing the injunction.
dallasnews.com/news/politics/… #txlege

A lawyer for the plaintiffs who sued to halt the abuse investigations tells me this morning that they don’t think there’s any basis for Paxton’s appeal.

There isn’t a copy of the notice of appeal or an actual appeal brief online yet.

#txlege #lgbt #lgbtq

CPS has declined to answer our questions about how the pending litigation will affect their abuse investigations.

But if we take Paxton — who doesn’t lead @TexasDFPS — at his word, he’ll urge the agency to keep investigating trans kids as the appeals process continues. #txlege

The state’s lawyers have argued 1) the judge who issued the injunction has no authority to do so and 2) the state can’t be sued over this (sovereign immunity).

The state lost in appeals once before.

Paxton will likely take these same arguments to @SupremeCourt_TX. #txlege

That said, AG Paxton’s public statements have contradicted what the state’s lawyers have been saying in court.

The biggest contrast? In court, an assistant attorney general argued the state doesn’t think gender affirming care is abuse by default: dallasnews.com/news/politics/… #txlege

(Interesting side note: the state’s lawyer who said gender affirming care is not abuse per se last week was not in court this week. Don’t know why.)

This is all to say I wish I could be clearer on what families, doctors and teachers should expect. We may know more today. #txlege

In the meantime, here are some stories about transgender youth and their families in Texas:

dallasnews.com/news/2022/03/0… by @maringwolf

19thnews.org/2022/03/texas-… by @shoeleatherkate

texastribune.org/2022/02/28/tex… by @snehadey_ @kbrooksharper #txlege #lgbt #lgbtq