AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) - A Kansas company that makes fuselages used in Boeing 737s is fighting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's request for company records.
Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. - one of the world's largest manufacturers of aerostructures for commercial, military, and business jets - filed a lawsuit May 1 against W. Kenneth Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, and Jane Nelson, Secretary of State of Texas, in Austin federal court.
The lawsuit stems from an attempt by Attorney General Paxton to demand confidential and propriety corporate information from Spirit AeroSystems without a warrant. Spirit has one operating facility in Texas and employs 98 of its total 20,655 employees in the state.
It also makes the fuselages used in Boeing 737 airplanes. The request was made under the Texas Business Organizations Code §§ 12.151-12.156, which allows the Texas Attorney General to inspect any records and documents of entities doing business in the state.
Spirit AeroSystems alleges that this statute violates its Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
The company is seeking a declaratory judgment that the Texas Business Organizations Code §§ 12.151-12.156 is unconstitutional and an injunction to halt its operation until a final ruling on the merits.