Why Gov. Abbott will likely succeed in hiding Musk emails from public

Texas continues to swing a wrecking ball at the once-sturdy framework it built to promote open government.

A few months ago, we voiced concern about a lawsuit that might make it impossible for district courts to review Gov. Greg Abbott’s and Attorney General Ken Paxton’s decisions to withhold public records.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of Abbott and Paxton, deciding that only the high court itself could compel these powerful offices to release records they want to keep secret.

The outcome of that ruling will be a less transparent executive branch, one with a license to flaunt the state’s open records laws.

That realization sunk in this week, when the Texas Newsroom reported that Abbott’s office is challenging the outlet’s request for emails among the governor, his staff and billionaire Elon Musk.

Those communications are of high public interest. Texans have a right to know what policy matters the governor’s office is discussing with Musk, former adviser to President Donald Trump and a mogul with expansive business interests in our state.

The governor’s public information coordinator argued that the communications include protected exchanges with attorneys, policymaking details about how Texas attracts businesses here and financial transaction information that is “intimate and embarrassing” and of “no legitimate concern to the public.”

The language in quotation marks is commonly used to invoke a permitted exception to the Texas Public Information Act, and doesn’t necessarily imply anything salacious.

But we are disturbed by the argument that none of the exchanges between Abbott’s office and Musk should be released to the public.

The governor’s challenge is in the hands of the office of the attorney general, which is charged with deciding whether certain exemptions to the Texas Public Information Act apply.

If the attorney general’s office were run by anyone other than Paxton, we would harbor hope that this particular records request might get a fair assessment.

But Paxton is our attorney general, and he has tarnished the reputation of his office even as his fellow Republicans have let him off the hook. He has given Texans plenty of reasons to distrust him on all sorts of matters. Why should we trust him with an open records decision involving a political ally?

In records disputes involving other government offices, those making a request can ask a district court to compel an agency to release documents. But in Abbott’s case, requesters would have to enlist Travis County prosecutors to sue the governor, according to the state Supreme Court.

“But that requirement hardly diminishes the incentive of state officials, who face the prospect of both criminal and civil liability … to comply in good faith with the (Public Information Act),” the court wrote.

Have the justices been to Texas lately? Skimmed news coverage of Paxton’s impeachment trial? The Texas Republican establishment protects its own from accountability.Under previous Republican leadership, Texans had a responsive attorney general’s office, including under Abbott. We had an enviable open-records tradition.Now we hang our heads in shame.

This editorial was published by The Dallas Morning news and distributed by Tribune Content Agency.