When a county commissioner in Dallas wanted to question Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-Texas) about statements she made about him to the press, he filed court papers in the state court. U.S. House of Representatives lawyers grabbed the petition and moved it to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas with the hope of getting it quashed.
But a federal judge in Texas found that the state court was the proper venue — a ruling upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which said it didn’t have jurisdiction to overrule the trial judge.
