Legal moves taken by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond to defend the state treasurer in a lawsuit attacking the constitutionality of the Oklahoma anti-ESG law go before an Oklahoma County District Judge on Friday—the same judge who suspended enforcement of the Act a few months earlier.
District Judge Sheila Stinson, who temporarily halted enforcement of the Act by State Treasurer Todd Russ and prevented him from adding any more financial firms to a list of those banned from state business, plans an 11 a.m. hearing on the case entitled CV-2023-3021.
The Attorney General and attorneys for Don Keenan, the retired state worker who filed suit last December and claimed the enforcement of the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act harmed his retirement benefits, will go before the Judge with their arguments. The Judge will possibly decide a number of motions filed by the Attorney General including a request to dismiss the lawsuit. If she makes no decision on Friday, she could take the issues under consideration or advisement.
Another request is to require Keenan to post an unspecified bond if the lawsuit were to proceed. The judge will also answer a motion for a summary judgment in the case and another seeking a writ of prohibition.
As reported earlier this week by OK Energy Today, the exchange of legal filings have developed into a battle of words between the Attorney General’s office and attorney and former Democratic legislator Colin Walke. In a filing last week, Walke accused the Attorney General’s office of “Plaintiff’s material facts largely consist of legal conclusions masquerading as fact or quotations from state officials stripped of their relevant context.”
Walke’s claim came in a response to accusations made by the Attorney General that Walke “has not provided factual evidence—certainly not undisputed evidence—that the Act will cost OPERS money, which is necessary for his Exclusive Benefit provision claim.”
