Houston sues Texas for law that could ban cities from passing LGBTQ+ rights ordinances

The city of Houston is suing Texas over a new law that prevents cities and counties from passing local ordinances that go further than state law in areas like finance, agriculture, labor, and natural resources. H.B. 2127 would also overturn any existing ordinances that violate it.

Critics are calling it the “Death Star” law and say it is designed to usurp the power of progressive cities in the otherwise red state. Some are worried it threatens local LGBTQ+ rights ordinances as well.

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Austin City Councilmember Jose “Chito” Vela told KVUE that the bill “threatens local citizens’ way of life in so many ways – it threatens our sick leave mandate, our no-kill animal shelter practices, our tenant protections, our worker protections and our LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance. It is contrary to the rights of home rule cities and the will of the democratically elected people of those cities.”

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“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,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told reporters. “That is a total reversal from the way things have been in this state for more than a century.”

Houston’s lawsuit argues that the law not only violates the state constitution, but also uses “vague language so indefinite, awkward, and opaque that it fails to notify Texas cities which of their laws they may enforce or Texas businesses and residents which local laws they must obey.”

The suit explains that the Texas constitution “allows state law to preempt laws enacted by constitutional home rule cities only when they directly and irreconcilably conflict with such local law, and then only to the extent of that conflict.”

It adds, “As the Texas Supreme Court has interpreted the Texas Constitution’s home rule provision, the party seeking to assert preemption of a local law bears the burden of establishing a direct and irreconcilable conflict between state and local law as well as intent by the State to preempt the local law with ‘unmistakable clarity.’”

The law, scheduled to take effect on September 1, is far from the state’s first attempt at taking power away from cities and counties, though the Texas Tribune says it is “the most wide-ranging effort to-date.”