> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.urgentmatter.press/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Appeals by Dan Patrick and Dawn Buckingham freeze ex-Alamo chief's lawsuit - URL: https://www.urgentmatter.press/appeals-by-dan-patrick-dawn-buckingham-freeze-ex-alamo-chiefs-lawsuit/ - Published: 2026-10-13T03:01:38.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-13T03:01:38.000Z - Description: U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio stayed the case on August 27 and ordered it administratively closed. - Author: Adam Schrader - Tags: Law and Crime, #public-access Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham have taken former Alamo Trust president Kate Rogers' First Amendment lawsuit to a federal appeals court, putting the case on hold days after a judge ruled most of it could go forward, court documents show. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in San Antonio stayed the case on August 27 and ordered it administratively closed while Patrick appeals to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Buckingham filed her appeal the same day. On September 8, Rodriguez denied Rogers' request to keep the case moving against Alamo Trust, board chair Welcome Wilson Jr., current president Esperanza "Hope" Andrade and the Remember the Alamo Foundation. He wrote that he "declines to allow the case to proceed in a piecemeal fashion at this time." [Add Urgent Matter on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=urgentmatter.press&ref=urgentmatter.press) Rogers' lawyers had asked to start collecting documents and testimony from the Alamo defendants, who did not appeal, warning that evidence could be lost. They cited federal court statistics showing a median of 7.8 months between filing an appeal and issuance of an opinion. The appeals challenge Rodriguez's August 25 ruling, which allowed most of Rogers' claims to proceed. The judge rejected Patrick's qualified-immunity defense at this stage and denied Buckingham's motion to dismiss. Qualified immunity is a doctrine that shields officials from paying damages unless they violated "clearly established" rights. Urgent Matter [previously reported](https://www.urgentmatter.press/former-head-alamo-trust-sues-texas-officials/) that Rogers sued in November 2025, claiming Patrick and Buckingham forced her out over a 2023 doctoral dissertation. ***Paid subscribers can*** [***read the court documents***](https://www.urgentmatter.press/court-documents-rogers-v-alamo-trust/) ***used in this reporting.*** [Docs: Ex-Alamo boss’ free speech lawsuit against Dan PatrickCourt documents from Rogers v. Alamo Trust in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/icon/urgent-matter-icon-561e4a4d-088d-40d2-9c89-22c7e7a98b7c.jpg)Urgent MatterAdam Schrader![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/thumbnail/urgent-matter-icon-2-27a47c52-d35b-461c-9981-09845166738a.jpg)](https://www.urgentmatter.press/court-documents-rogers-v-alamo-trust/) Patrick and his chief of staff, Darrell Davila, called Rogers on October 22, 2025, her amended complaint alleges. Patrick allegedly opened with, "I don't want to make this call," then said he had "found" her dissertation "and it is not acceptable." "I need you to resign. You need to resign," he told her, the complaint says. He wanted her to say publicly that the dissertation had "become a distraction." When Rogers would not commit, Patrick asked, "Are you going to say I called you?" She refused to keep it quiet. "Then I need to end the call," Patrick allegedly said. That night, Andrade, then the board's treasurer, assured Rogers the board backed her. The next morning, Patrick phoned Andrade and read her parts of the dissertation, the complaint says. Andrade then called Rogers. "There's nothing I can do. You need to resign," Andrade told her, the complaint alleges. Rogers asked, "What if I don't resign?" "Then we will fire you," Andrade said, adding that Wilson backed the ultimatum and "the State" planned a statement that day, the complaint alleges. The Alamo defendants tell it differently. In a March motion, they said Rogers took Patrick's call at a colleague's retirement celebration and came back "visibly upset." "Rogers repeatedly said that 'it was done' and she was resigning," the motion says. When Andrade invited her home to talk it over, Rogers instead asked her to "get her a good severance (a year)," it says. "At no time did Lt. Governor Patrick ever direct Andrade, Wilson or the ATI Board to fire Rogers," the Alamo defendants wrote. They said Rogers' October 23 resignation letter asked for two years of severance. Patrick argued that Rogers offered to resign on October 15, a week before he raised the dissertation, during a board meeting about an Alamo social media post marking Indigenous Peoples' Day. Rogers' complaint says the board refused to consider that offer. "When her prognostications came true, Plaintiff resigned her position, and, instead of looking in the mirror, Plaintiff chose to cast blame on everyone but herself," Patrick's lawyers wrote in a March reply. In a two-page section of the dissertation, written for a University of Southern California doctorate she started before joining Alamo Trust in 2021, Rogers wrote that she does "not believe it is the role of politicians to determine what professional educators can or should teach in the classroom." She also wrote that the study "could have negative consequences for the $300 million Alamo Plan as well as \[Rogers's\] job," the ruling says. Rodriguez found she wrote it as a private citizen, not as an employee. He also rejected the officials' claim that they were only exercising their own free speech. They "allegedly went further by using their power and influence to direct Rogers's constructive termination from an entity over which they exercised significant control," Rodriguez wrote. The severance offer Alamo Trust and the foundation later pulled required Rogers to stay out of "any public discussion or other publicity" about her departure and not make "derogatory or negative comments" about affiliates, including "any elected officials or state and local governmental bodies affiliated with the Alamo," the complaint says. After the board withdrew the offer over Rogers' Texas Monthly interview, a board member asked Patrick and Buckingham to let talks resume, the complaint says. Patrick told the Alamo defendants to drop them, saying the article made him and them look "weak," it alleges. The Alamo defendants say Rogers agreed to the gag language on October 30, the day the article ran, calling her actions "duplicitous." They say Patrick and Buckingham had no role in pulling the offer. Rodriguez found the withdrawal could count as retaliation, likening it to a refusal to promote that "deprived Rogers of potential income." He dismissed two parts of the case without prejudice, meaning Rogers can try again: her request that Patrick reinstate her, because Texas law puts the Texas General Land Office, not the lieutenant governor, in charge of the Alamo, and her claim that the foundation helped force her out. She can still seek damages from Patrick personally. Buckingham told the court her office has "no official role" when Alamo Trust hires or fires staff. Rodriguez found that the office's management contract and its "substantial control" in practice were enough, for now, to keep alive Rogers' bid to have Buckingham reinstate her. Buckingham's general counsel, Jeff Gordon, warned Rogers that Buckingham wanted her to "straighten up and make \[Commissioner Buckingham\] happy," the amended complaint says. Her staff also wanted to vet the books sold in the Alamo gift shop. In October 2023, Buckingham's office texted Rogers about "quite a few aggressive calls" over an Alamo event honoring Mexican soldiers. After Rogers said it had been pulled from the website and social media, the office replied, "Thank you for handling. Don't want any unnecessary uproar heading into special session," the complaint says. The complaint alleges Rogers was also caught between the two officials. On June 16, 2025, she texted Patrick that Buckingham objected to her canceling a committee meeting, telling her, "he's not in charge of the Alamo, I am." Patrick replied, "If she asks again tell her the \[L\]egislature has over 600 million invested in the Alamo and we have a right to have a say in that investment." Rodriguez cited that message as a sign that Patrick's conduct "went beyond mere speech." ## Sign up for Urgent Matter This article is provided free with the support of paying subscribers. Not ready for a paid subscription? Sign up for a free account today. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. After the Indigenous Peoples' Day post, the Alamo Trust board told Rogers at an October 15 meeting, "The state is too upset about this. Someone is going to have to pay," the complaint says. The board fired the communications director and agreed to replace the writer of the script for the Alamo's future museum. Wilson wrote to Buckingham the next day promising the Land Office "direct involvement in the content review processes moving forward" and that "future actions fully reflect your vision for this historic site," the complaint says. Rogers also alleges the Land Office withheld its October 13 to November 1, 2025, communications about her from a Texas Public Information Act request, citing "a privity of interest" with parties she says are the Alamo defendants. The Alamo defendants wrote that Buckingham's own motion shows the emails "pre-date Rogers' resignation by over a month and had nothing to do with her dissertation or resignation." *Urgent Matter is reader-supported. Please* [*consider subscribing*](https://www.urgentmatter.press/36-antiquities-returned-to-syria-including-13-seized-from-the-met/#/portal) *to support independent arts journalism.*