{"id":87178,"date":"2025-12-14T00:21:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/87178\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T00:21:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:21:03","slug":"judge-sets-hearing-in-corleys-lawsuit-seeking-return-to-office-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/87178\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge sets hearing in Corley\u2019s lawsuit seeking return to office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; A hearing next week will consider Jason Corley\u2019s lawsuit seeking to re-instate him as Precinct 2 Lubbock County commissioner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Corley filed a lawsuit late Monday, after County Judge Curtis Parrish removed him from office. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Texas 237th District Court Judge Les Hatch recused himself. Visiting Senior Judge Patrick Pirtle, formerly of the Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo, has been assigned to the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Judge Pirtle denied Corley\u2019s request for a temporary restraining order. He did rule that Corley\u2019s request for an expeditious hearing on his application for temporary injunction \u201cis warranted and should be granted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 19 in the 237th District Court. Corley\u2019s legal action is filed against Mark Meurer, the man Parrish swore into office as Precinct 2 commissioner Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">COVERAGE DEC. 8: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcbd.com\/2025\/12\/09\/county-judge-parrish-removes-commissioner-corley-office-corley-says-move-corrupt-power-play-files-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kcbd.com\/2025\/12\/09\/county-judge-parrish-removes-commissioner-corley-office-corley-says-move-corrupt-power-play-files-lawsuit\/\">County Judge Parrish removes Commissioner Corley from office; Corley says move \u2018corrupt power play,\u2019 files lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Removal from office<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Parrish claimed Corley became a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcbd.com\/2025\/11\/12\/jason-corley-announces-exploratory-committee-texas-19th-congressional-district\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kcbd.com\/2025\/11\/12\/jason-corley-announces-exploratory-committee-texas-19th-congressional-district\/\">in November<\/a>, when he announced an exploratory committee. Parrish cited state law, that a county commissioner or several other elected officials automatically resign when becoming a candidate for another office more than one year and 30 days before his or her term ends. Corley\u2019s term runs through December 31, 2026. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In the lawsuit, Corley calls Parrish\u2019s justification to remove him an \u201cextremely broad\u201d and an \u201cerroneous application\u201d of the \u201cResign to Run\u201d law. Corley insists he didn\u2019t resign his office because he did not file for candidacy for U.S. House of Representatives until the law no longer applied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On December 2, Corley<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcbd.com\/2025\/12\/02\/county-commissioner-jason-corley-officially-announces-run-congress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kcbd.com\/2025\/12\/02\/county-commissioner-jason-corley-officially-announces-run-congress\/\"> made the announcement<\/a> he is seeking the Republican nomination for TX-19, following Rep. Jodey Arrington\u2019s announcement he will not seek re-election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u2018Corrupt Power Play\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Corley is asking the court to issue an order declaring him commissioner once again and to remove Meurer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=1241593407792845&amp;set=a.287399896545539\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=1241593407792845&amp;set=a.287399896545539\" target=\"_blank\">Corley posted a statement on social media<\/a> Monday calling Judge Parrish\u2019s actions an \u201coutrageous and politically driven stunt to silence the strongest advocate for accountability in Lubbock County government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Corley called the move a \u201ccorrupt power grab\u201d that will not stand. Corley wrote the people, \u201cnot a weak and threatened judge\u201d have the right to decide who represents them. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Statements<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In a statement Monday, Judge Parrish outlined Corley\u2019s actions with a timeline:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cCommissioner Corley has sent emails to several individuals stating he is a candidate for Congress. In an email on November 12, 2025, to media outlets across Texas, Mr. Corley stated he was forming an exploratory committee to assess the level of public support for his campaign for Congress. This email was sent by Jason Corley from a \u2018Corley for Congress\u2019 email address. Attached to the press release were two \u2018Corley for Congress\u2019 campaign graphics, a \u2018Corley for Congress\u2019 post office box address in Slaton, and a medica contact person also using a \u2018Corley for Congress\u2019 email address.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Below is the full statement released by Corley\u2019s campaign in response Monday morning:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This morning, Judge Curtis Parrish orchestrated an outrageous and politically driven stunt meant to silence the strongest advocate for accountability in Lubbock County government by removing Commissioner Jason Corley from the seat voters elected him to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jason Corley followed the law to the letter. Before filing, he consulted multiple attorneys to make sure his candidacy complied with every detail of Texas election law. The claim that forming an exploratory committee somehow triggered the \u2018Resign-to-Run\u2019 rule is absurd, desperate, and reeks of political manipulation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Curtis Parrish knows Jason Corley has exposed waste, fought laziness in county leadership, and demanded results for taxpayers. Parrish has spent years dodging responsibility while Jason rolled up his sleeves to get things done. Now, faced with growing public disapproval, Parrish is using his position to punish the one man unafraid to call him out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This corrupt power grab will not stand. Corley isn\u2019t going anywhere\u2014because the people of Lubbock County know who\u2019s been fighting for them and who\u2019s been hiding behind politics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u2018The voters\u2014not a weak and threatened judge\u2014have the right to decide who represents them,\u2019 said the Corley Campaign. \u2018Curtis Parrish can try to remove Jason from office, but he can\u2019t remove the truth. Jason Corley has been the loudest, toughest watchdog for taxpayers\u2014and that fight isn\u2019t ending today.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Legal options are being pursued immediately, and the campaign will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with voters demanding honest, accountable government. This blatant political attack only proves one thing: Jason Corley\u2019s leadership has them scared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Jason Corley for Congress \u2013 Fearless. Proven. Unbought.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) &#8211; A hearing next week will consider Jason Corley\u2019s lawsuit seeking to re-instate him as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[7323,2441,2436,36623,168,13589,170,169,41201],"class_list":{"0":"post-87178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lubbock","8":"tag-county-commissioner","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-curtis-parrish","11":"tag-jason-corley","12":"tag-lubbock","13":"tag-lubbock-county","14":"tag-lubbock-headlines","15":"tag-lubbock-news","16":"tag-mark-muerer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}