Paxton’s office filed appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit beginning in January 2018 to contest injunctive directives issued by a federal district court in the Southern District of Texas. The office also filed a motion for summary judgment in January 2020 urging the court to strike down an Obama-era administrative rule governing foster care placements on constitutional, Administrative Procedure Act, and Religious Freedom Restoration Act grounds.
The underlying dispute centers on whether a federal district court and its appointed special masters exceeded their legal authority in ordering systemic reforms to Texas’s foster care system. Paxton’s office argued consistently that the lower court’s directives would reverse progress made following landmark foster care legislation enacted by the Texas Legislature.
In an April 30, 2018 statement, Paxton said, “We successfully demonstrated the absurdity of the lower court's ruling to the 5th Circuit. The ruling was arrived at by an unelected federal judge who misapplied the law, hijacked control of our state's foster care system, and ordered an ill-conceived plan by the special masters that is both incomplete and impractical.”
Paxton also argued that responsibility for foster care policy rests with the legislative and executive branches, not the judiciary. Following a March 2018 argument, he stated, “Responsibility for determining policy priorities and implementing best practices lies with the legislative and executive branches of government.”
The litigation reflects a broader tension between federal judicial oversight of state institutional systems and state sovereignty arguments. For practitioners advising state agencies, the case illustrates legal tools available to resist consent decree-style federal court supervision, including interlocutory appeals, attacks on special master authority, and constitutional challenges to the underlying regulatory framework.
Paxton led a multistate coalition in filing an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in August 2019 in support of faith-based child welfare organizations. This strategy signals coordination among Republican attorneys general to shape federal law on the intersection of religious liberty and government-contracted social services.