In Re Powered by People and Robert Francis O'Rourke v. the State of Texas

Opinion

ACCEPTED 15-25-00140-CV FIFTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS 8/26/2025 3:34 PM No. 15-25-00140-CV CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE CLERK FILED IN 15th COURT OF APPEALS AUSTIN, TEXAS IN THE COURT OF APPEALS 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM FOR THE FIFTEENTH DISTRICT CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE Clerk AUSTIN, TEXAS

IN RE POWERED BY PEOPLE AND ROBERT FRANCIS O’ROURKE Relators

ORIGINAL PROCEEDING FROM THE 348TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF TARRANT COUNTY, TEXAS TRIAL COURT NO. 348-367652-2025

RESPONSE TO STATE’S MOTION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME TO FILE RESPONSE TO MANDAMUS PETITION

TO THE HONORABLE FIFTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS:

Other than ad hominem attacks, the State’s motion for extension offers no

compelling reason to disregard the Court’s existing schedule. Indeed, this is a

transparent attempt to moot the mandamus by requesting an extension of time

beyond the scheduled depositions, discovery, and temporary injunction hearing. The

whole point of the mandamus and the emergency relief motion is to avoid this

inappropriate use of jurisdiction and avoid wasting resources.

The subject orders are all related and demonstrate a clear abuse of discretion

in favor of the State that compounds the abuse of power being undertaken by the

1 Office of the Attorney General. The TRO is a prior restraint of speech and without

jurisdiction. The discovery orders are fundamentally unfair. The modified TRO and

now the most recent anti-suit injunction TRO were just entered and precipitated the

filing of the mandamus yesterday after exhausting all reasonable options at the trial

court level. Only after the Respondent made clear it was unwilling to correct its

egregious errors that the Petitioner believed it was appropriate to request relief in

this Court, but now that it has the State cannot be permitted to moot the requested

emergency relief by an extension of time. The State certainly asks others to jump

when it says so.

1. The fairest and most straightforward path is to grant the motion for emergency

relief, stay the current underlying matter and let the parties brief the important

statutory and subject matter jurisdiction issues raised before anyone’s free

speech rights are further violated, the parties’ waste time on a temporary

injunction that will likely be reversed and rendered on appeal for lack of

subject matter jurisdiction, and gives the State breathing room to brief the

merits to the Court if it so time constrained.

2. Finally, the State was sent through e-filing a copy of the Mandamus Record

last night and via email again today. A physical copy was overnighted.

Respectfully submitted, /s/ Mimi Marziani

2 Mimi Marziani Texas Bar No. 24091906 mmarziani@msgpllc.com Joaquin Gonzalez Texas Bar No. 24109935 jgonzalez@msgpllc.com Rebecca (Beth) Stevens bstevens@msgpllc.com Texas Bar No. 24065381 MARZIANI, STEVENS & GONZALEZ PLLC 500 W. 2nd Street, Suite 1900 Austin, TX 78701 Tel: (210) 343-5604

-AND-

Sean J. McCaffity State Bar No. 24013122 Email: smccaffity@textrial.com George (Tex) Quesada State Bar No. 16427750 Email: quesada@textrial.com SOMMERMAN, McCAFFITY, QUESADA & GEISLER, L.L.P. 3811 Turtle Creek Boulevard, Suite 1400 Dallas, Texas 75219-4461 214/720-0720 (Telephone) 214/720-0184 (Facsimile)

ATTORNEYS FOR DEFENDANTS

3 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

On August 26, 2025, in compliance with Texas Rules of Appellate

Procedure 9.5, I served this document by e-service, e-mail, certified mail, and/or

first-class mail to:

Via e-Service: William.Cole@oag.texas.gov Via e-Service: william.peterson@oag.texas.gov Via e-service: Rob.Farquharson@oag.texas.gov Rob Farquharson William F. Cole William R. Peterson Office of the Attorney General P.O. Box 12548 (MC 059) Austin, Texas 78711-2548 Tel.: (512) 936-1700 Fax: (512) 474-2697

Counsel for Real Party in Interest The State of Texas

/s/ Mimi Marziani Mimi Marziani

4 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.

Joaquin Gonzalez on behalf of Joaquin Gonzalez Bar No. 24109935 jgonzalez@msgpllc.com Envelope ID: 104873872 Filing Code Description: Response Filing Description: Response to State's Motion for Extension of Time to File Response to Mandamus Petition Status as of 8/26/2025 3:40 PM CST

Case Contacts

Name BarNumber Email TimestampSubmitted Status

Sean McCaffity 24013122 smccaffity@textrial.com 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

Robert Farquharson 24100550 rob.farquharson@oag.texas.gov 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

Maria Williamson maria.williamson@oag.texas.gov 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

William FCole William.Cole@oag.texas.gov 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

Mimi Marziani mmarziani@msgpllc.com 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

Joaquin Gonzalez jgonzalez@msgpllc.com 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

Brian Falligant` bfalligant@inquestresources.com 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

William Peterson william.peterson@oag.texas.gov 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

Rebecca Neumann rneumann@textrial.com 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT

Rebecca Stevens bstevens@msgpllc.com 8/26/2025 3:34:38 PM SENT