Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond figures if you’re going to sue the state over its Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, then you better be prepared to follow the law and put up the money.
In light of an Oklahoma County Judge’s recent suspension of the enforcement of the Act, a ruling in a lawsuit filed against State Treasurer Todd Russ, the attorney general responded with his own motion. He’s asking for a bond to be posted by Don Keenan, the former President of the Oklahoma Public Employees Association, who filed suit last November challenging the constitutionality of the 2022 law designed to protect the state’s oil and gas industry.
Drummond’s motion points out that Oklahoma law requires parties obtaining temporary injunctions to post a bond. The motion explained such a bond is to “ensure that a party who has been enjoined without benefit of a trial on the merits will be compensated for damages sustained as a result of its issuance if it is later determined that the injunction ought not to have been issued.”
The Attorney General said state law requires that the “bond is mandatory” and that without such a bond, then a temporary injunction, such as the one issued by District Judge Sheila Stinson, “is of no legal force or effect.”
Drummond stated that the Oklahoma Supreme Court held a “trial court must be reversed for failure to require an undertaking as required.”
The amount of the bond is to be determined by the Court but according to Drummond’s motion, the amount “should be enough to make the enjoined party whole for damages sustained during the course of the injunction and to cover reasonable attorney’s fees.”
Drummond entered the case earlier in May after the Judge issued the injunction. He also removed the private Oklahoma City law firm that had been hired by Treasurer Russ to defend himself when the suit was filed in November of last year.
Russ responded to the action by stating he had originally asked the Attorney General to represent him in the lawsuit but the request was denied.
