Today, Governor Kevin Stitt applauded the Supreme Court’s decision to allow him to choose cabinet secretaries from his agency heads. The decision comes after a politically motivated attorney general’s opinion filed by Gentner Drummond targeting Director of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation Tim Gatz.
“For four decades, Oklahoma governors have been able to pick their Cabinet members, plain and simple,” said Governor Stitt. “I set out to make government more efficient, and two people doing one job makes no sense. The Attorney General wasted precious taxpayer resources to pursue a politically motivated vendetta and grab campaign headlines. I appreciate the Supreme Court’s ruling putting an end to this stunt."
In 2024, Attorney General Gentner Drummond, in an attempt to capitalize on a news cycle concerning the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, issued an Attorney General’s opinion saying that holding the role of a Cabinet Secretary and an agency head was considered “dual office holding” despite four decades of precedent and no clear law saying so.
Governor Stitt filed a lawsuit questioning this opinion, which ultimately reached the Oklahoma Supreme Court. In a decisive ruling authored by Vice Chief Justice Dana Kuehn, the court held that Oklahoma law clearly permits the Governor to appoint agency heads to serve concurrently as Cabinet Secretaries, affirming the practice by Governor Stitt and every Oklahoma governor since the cabinet system was created in the 1980s.
