In 2023, Texas Republicans passed, and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed into law, House Bill 2127, a power grab so sweeping that it’s become known among critics and the public as the “Death Star Act.”
The law essentially outlaws any measure a local government entity passes that isn’t explicitly authorized by the state.
Related
The law passed several judicial challenges, and now a lawsuit against the City of Dallas, invoking it against 83 ordinances, will test whether it’s constitutional, the Texas Tribune reports.
Many of those local laws or regulations include anti-discrimination measures for LGBTQ+ people.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
The lawsuit asserts state supremacy over local regulation, citing overreach by local officials and the absence of state laws specifically authorizing local regulation, among other arguments against local control.
To cite one example from the suit, filed by three Dallas residents in Denton County District Court on Wednesday: the plaintiffs object to a local ordinance regulating billiard halls, which requires operators to obtain a city license, pay an annual $52-per-table fee, and comply with local moral-character standards.
Their argument: “No Texas statute authorizes the City of Dallas to regulate billiard halls.”
In the case of anti-discrimination measures, the suit argues the city exceeded its authority “by adding protected classes not recognized under state law, including sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.”
Dallas City Code “prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and businesses open to the public on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression,” the suit says, but that’s preempted under Texas Labor Code, which “only permits local ordinances that prohibit practices already unlawful under state or federal law.”
The same logic applies to at least six local laws or ordinances that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and hiring, for-hire drivers, housing, City of Dallas personnel decisions, public accommodations, and more.
“No Texas law requires businesses to comply with nondiscrimination mandates in public accommodations,” the lawsuit states.
Shortly after House Bill 2127 passed in 2023, the cities of Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso sued Texas to block the new law, arguing it deprived elected officials of the power to enact local ordinances, on everything from noise regulation to cat breeding (the Dallas suit claims state authority over that, as well).
“What this means is that cities like the city of Houston cannot pass ordinances in these areas unless the state of Texas explicitly gives us permission to do so,” late Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told the Texas Tribune at the time. “That is a total reversal from the way things have been in this state for more than a century.”
“Cities don’t get to pick and choose which state laws they follow,” said Matthew Chiarizio, a senior attorney for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the conservative think tank representing the plaintiffs in the Dallas suit.
“For too long, Dallas has piled unnecessary and duplicative regulations on its citizens. The Legislature has rightly preempted those rules, and this lawsuit is about protecting Texans’ freedom to live and work without being smothered by layers of needless local regulation.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.