A sitting district judge, a sheriff and a former district attorney won’t have to answer discovery in a civil rights lawsuit against them for now, as they appeal a major ruling that denied them qualified immunity in a free-speech case.

In a case in which a former police captain alleges he was fired for speaking up about an improperly close relationship between the three government officials, U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas on Wednesday ordered a pause on discovery against 402nd District Judge Jeff Fletcher, Wood County Sheriff Tom Castloo and former Wood County District Attorney Jim Wheeler.