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German car manufacturers Volkswagen and Audi — facing a lawsuit from Texas that could cost the companies millions stemming from the emissions cheating scheme uncovered in 2015 — argue that Gov. Greg Abbott could unfairly tilt the scales in the state’s favor by appointing two temporary justices to help decide the case.
With tens of thousands of vehicles impacted in Texas, several millions of dollars could be at stake in the Texas case, according to the state’s civil penalties code. The issue before the state’s high court centers on whether Texas has jurisdiction over the foreign parent companies, Germany-based Volkswagen and Audi.
Justices Jimmy Blacklock and Evan Young recused themselves from the case, Hecht wrote in the letter, leaving the court with seven remaining members to rule on the case. The Texas constitution requires at least five justices to agree, one way or the other, in order to issue a supreme court decision, suggesting the remaining justices were split.
But because the state is a party in Attorney General Ken Paxton’s cases against the companies, Volkswagen and Audi’s lawyers have argued that allowing the Texas governor to appoint justices to a case for which the state stands to win a substantial amount of money would give “the impression that the State has had undue influence.”
“Although the Governor and the Attorney General are different officers, they both represent the same entity: the state of Texas,” wrote Jeffrey Wall, an attorney for Volkswagen in a letter to the court that was also sent to Abbott.
Hecht declined to comment on the letter, but a spokesperson for the Supreme Court of Texas said that there have been at least 13 other instances since 1995 in which the governor was asked to appoint temporary justices.
