FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas — Commissioner Dexter McCoy, Commissioner Grady Prestage, and County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson have spent weeks insisting that the legal disputes surrounding Fort
Bend County government should be resolved by the courts.
The courts are now doing exactly that. McCoy simply does not like the answers.
McCoy and Prestage relied on Smith-Lawson’s legal opinion to justify abandoning their seats on Commissioners Court and refusing to participate in county business. When that position was challenged, their message was clear: let the courts decide.
Now, after court rulings have failed to produce the outcomes McCoy wanted, he is attacking the judges themselves.
Judge Edward Krenek allowed Fort Bend County Judge Daniel Wong to continue performing the duties of County Judge while the underlying litigation proceeds. Judge Mark Hanna denied the County Attorney’s
request for an emergency temporary restraining order seeking to prevent Commissioners Court from considering an agenda item.
McCoy’s response? Attack the judges as Republicans and accuse the judiciary of putting “partisanship” ahead of the rule of law.
Dexter McCoy said to let the courts decide. The courts are deciding. He simply doesn’t like the answers.
Disagreeing with a ruling is one thing. Attacking the legitimacy and impartiality of judges because their rulings do not produce your preferred political outcome is something else entirely.
The rule of law is not a process of repeatedly demanding a new answer until Dexter McCoy gets the one he wants.
Fort Bend County residents deserve elected officials who show up, conduct the people’s business, respect our institutions, and accept that the rule of law applies even when the outcome is politically inconvenient.
The Fort Bend County Republican Party will continue to stand for the orderly operation of county government, respect for the judicial process, and the principle that no elected official gets to decide that a court is legitimate only when that court rules in his favor.
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