After Nebraska filed an en banc petition with the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined an amicus brief arguing that the Eleventh Amendment and sovereign immunity bar attempts by death-penalty inmates to gain access to confidential information about other states’ death-penalty drugs, suppliers, and protocols. State sovereignty is directly threatened when out-of-state litigants issue non-party subpoenas and force state governments to defend in federal court without their consent. Like tribal governments and the federal government, states should receive the same immunity from such subpoenas.
Read a copy of the brief here.