The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on April 6 in an employment discrimination appeal in which a former Dallas County assistant district attorney alleges DA Craig Watkins fired him on the basis of his race.
In his November 2007 complaint in Rick Jackson v. Craig Watkins and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office , Jackson, who is white, alleges he was wrongly fired by then-new DA Watkins and replaced by a less-experienced black attorney. Watkins won office during the 2006 general election and on Jan. 1, 2007, he became the first black district attorney in Texas.
