This might dampen Big Tex's smile as the State Fair of Texas prepares to open next month.

A judge has ordered the State Fair to pay over $77,000 for improperly suing an Austin law firm that requested financial records from the fair under an open government law. The fair is appealing.

The firm, Riggs & Ray, sent a Texas Public Information Act request to the fair this spring. The fair responded with a lawsuit in Dallas's 101st District Court, but the litigation ended badly for the fair when the court sided with the firm's arguments that the court did not have jurisdiction over the case because, among other things, the TPIA prevents a lawsuit against someone who requests public records. The court also dismissed the lawsuit, finding that the State Fair violated the Texas Citizens Participation Act, which prohibits strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP.