In June, Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy wrote a $500 check to Gina Hinojosa's campaign for governor.
On Monday, a week before Election Day, Mauzy ruled in Hinojosa's favor in a lawsuit against the man Hinojosa is trying to unseat, Gov. Greg Abbott.
Mauzy didn't step aside.
Hinojosa, a Democratic state representative from Austin, filed the suit on October 19. She wanted unredacted copies of emails between Abbott's office and Elon Musk's companies, and she argued she had a right to them as a state lawmaker. Earlier, when the governor's office released 1,374 pages of those emails to reporters, all but about 200 pages were almost entirely blacked out.
Mauzy ordered Abbott's office to let Hinojosa look at the unredacted records by Thursday.
That $500 wasn't the first time Mauzy has given Hinojosa money. Mauzy reportedly also gave $700 to Hinojosa's state House campaign in 2016.
Hinojosa isn't running a gentle campaign, either. Days before she sued, she called Abbott "the most corrupt governor in Texas history." So a judge who has given money to Hinojosa more than once sat in judgment of a lawsuit Hinojosa filed against her opponent, one week before the election.
Texas has a rule for this. Under the state's Code of Judicial Conduct, a judge must step aside from any case where his or her impartiality "might reasonably be questioned." Judges are also supposed to act "at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary." It's hard to see how that standard is met when the judge has given money to the plaintiff.
Abbott's office didn't mince words. A spokesman called it "a sham lawsuit in a rigged district court." The governor's general counsel asked a higher court to remove Mauzy from the case, pointing to her donation and the timing of the lawsuit.
The higher court moved fast. On Tuesday, the day after Mauzy's ruling, Texas's 15th Court of Appeals froze it. Hinojosa won't be seeing those emails for now.
That appeals court exists because of cases like this one. Texas Republicans created the 15th Court of Appeals, which began hearing cases in 2024, to take lawsuits involving the state out of the hands of Travis County's courts. Travis County covers Austin and is one of the most liberal places in Texas.
The appeals court didn't rule on whether Mauzy should have stepped aside. Abbott has also asked for the lawsuit to be thrown out entirely.
Election Day is Tuesday. Mauzy's ruling is on hold, and Abbott's request to remove her from the case is still pending.
