Two high-profile federal lawsuits involving former state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters aren’t going to move forward now that he’s left office, court filings show.
Walters’ lawsuit against the federal Department of Homeland Security — claiming the state’s schools system was owed $474 million to “recoup illegal immigration impacts” — likely will be dismissed.
In addition, a state attorney has dropped an appeal of a ruling ordering Walters and his former spokesman to pay more than $170,000 in fees to attorneys who represented Oklahoma City television station KFOR in a First Amendment lawsuit.
Charles Miller, an attorney who represented KFOR, told The Oklahoman on Monday, Oct. 6, that the state Department of Education “is processing the checks for the attorney fees now,” an indication they are being paid with taxpayer money.
The developments come about one week after Walters, a far-right Republican, resigned from office Sept. 30. As the state’s top education official, Walters carried out a self-described “conservative agenda” for Oklahoma schools. He repeatedly pledged to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to increase enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education – which he once led – sued the Department of Homeland Security in January, when former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, still was in office. The lawsuit accused the Biden administration of “border mismanagement” and noted what Walters called the “skyrocketing costs Oklahoma schools face to accommodate an influx of non-citizen students.”
Three days after Walters resigned, an attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of Education filed an unopposed motion to dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it could not be refiled.
“Given the lapse in time and change of the current administration, the plaintiffs now agree that their complaint has been mooted,” wrote Jacquelyne Phelps, interim general counsel for the state agency.
The state agency has previously resisted efforts to dismiss the case. The new Republican administration leading the Department of Homeland Security had asked U.S. District Judge Jodi Dishman to dismiss the lawsuit in May.
Attorneys representing U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem – who now is the primary defendant in the case – said while agency officials sympathized with Walters’ concerns, Oklahoma has no standing to sue the federal government.
What to know about the KFOR case
In the KFOR case, Walters and the former communications director at the Department of Education, Dan Isett, dropped their appeal of an order by U.S. District Judge Bernard Jones that they pay four attorneys who successfully represented KFOR in that lawsuit $170,461 in legal fees.
Two federal lawsuits involving former state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters are nearing resolution.
KFOR and three of its journalists had sued Walters and Isett in September 2024, saying Walters and Isett had prevented the journalists from being in the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting room while public meetings and news conferences were being held.
In December, on the day before a scheduled bench trial was to begin, a settlement was reached that granted most of what KFOR had requested.
Phelps had argued attorneys’ fees shouldn’t be paid for by the defendants, suggesting KFOR’s owner, Nexstar Media Group, was worth $4.7 billion and could afford to pay its own attorneys.
Phelps appealed the ruling regarding attorneys’ fees to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the KFOR attorneys filed a counterappeal. But on Oct. 1 – Walters’ first day out of office – Christopher Wolpert, the court clerk for the 10th Circuit, noted in an order that both sides desired to “voluntarily dismiss” their appeals. The order dismissed the appeals and noted both sides would cover their own costs.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma moves to drop Ryan Walters’ suit demanding $474M from DHS
