Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Walker

The States of Alabama and Texas intervened in the Texas state court action brought by Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil) to quash the subpoena issued by the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) Office of the Attorney General. The USVI attorney general issued the subpoena in its investigation of whether ExxonMobil misrepresented its contributions to climate change to defraud consumers and the government. In their plea in intervention, Alabama and Texas said that their “sovereign power and investigative and prosecutorial authority” were implicated by the USVI attorney general’s tactics. Alabama and Texas asserted that the USVI attorney general’s representation by a private law firm in the proceeding and the potential use of contingency fees in a criminal or quasi-criminal matter raised due process considerations that they had an interest in protecting.

Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil) filed a lawsuit in a Texas state court against the Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), whose office had issued a subpoena to ExxonMobil under the territory’s Criminally Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The subpoena said that ExxonMobil misrepresented its contributions to climate change to defraud consumers and the government. ExxonMobil’s petition for declaratory relief asserted that the subpoena was “a pretextual use of law enforcement power to deter ExxonMobil from participating in ongoing public deliberations about climate change and to fish through decades of ExxonMobil’s documents with the hope of finding some ammunition to enhance” the attorney general’s policy stance. The lawsuit also named a Washington law firm that represented the attorney general and one of the law firm’s lawyers as defendants. ExxonMobil alleged causes of action for violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as abuse of process under common law. The petition sought a declaration that the subpoena was unenforceable.