AUSTIN - A federal judge has stopped Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's attempt to investigate a company that builds fuselages used in Boeing 737s.
The docket in Spirit AeroSystems' case against Paxton shows on Oct. 11 Judge Mark Lane granted the company's motion for summary judgment and permanent injunction at a hearing, though no written order has yet been filed.
Spirit went to court May 1 to fight Paxton's request for company records, which Spirit argued were confidential and proprietary. The company has one operating facility in Texas and employs 98 of its total 20,655 workers in that state.
The request was made under the Texas Business Organizations Code §§ 12.151-12.156, which allows the Texas Attorney General to inspect any records and documents of entities doing business in the state.
Spirit AeroSystems alleges that this statute violates its Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. It filed its motion for summary judgment and permanent injunction on June 6.
"Spirit has significant objections to the reasonableness of the Attorney General's overbroad and burdensome Request to Examine," that motion says, citing U.S. Supreme Court rulings that says the subjects of such probes must be allowed to obtain "precompliance review before a neutral decisionmaker."
"But the RTE Statute provides no mechanism for presenting those objections to a neutral decisionmaker in a precompliance review. That alone renders the statute facially unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment," attorneys for Spirit wrote.
And exemptions to the precompliance review requirement regarding closely regulated industries don't apply, Spirit says, as there is no Texas law that regulates the commercial aircraft manufacturing industry.
"Conferring on a state official such sweeping (and unreviewable) discretion to invade Spirit's privacy interests is constitutionally intolerable under the Fourth Amendment," Spirit says.
Earlier this year, Paxton opened his investigation of Spirit following disasters with Boeing's 737 MAX planes. Two crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people, then in January of this year the door blew out of one that led the Federal Aviation Administration to ground all MAX planes with similar configurations.
"The potential risks associated with certain airplane models are deeply concerning and potentially life-threatening to Texans," Paxon said. "I will hold any company responsible if they fail to maintain the standards required by the law and will do everything in my power to ensure manufacturers take passenger safety seriously."
He issued his RTE to Spirit on March 28, telling Spirit, its board and its officers it "has a continuing duty" to provide records while he investigates.
The RTE mentions a shareholder class action lawsuit against Spirit in New York federal court that followed a drop in the company's value once Boeing announced it would halt deliveries of 737 MAX planes because of a supplier quality problem linked to Spirit.
The company's value fell nearly 21% to $28.2 per share on April 14. The presiding judge is weighing Spirit's motion to dismiss that case.