This article has been updated.
The City of San Antonio has joined a lawsuit against the state over a preemption law approved during the 88th legislative session that city leaders say has effectively stopped them from being able to do their jobs.
House Bill 2127, crafted by state Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, aims to create a statewide, uniform set of regulations for businesses, which Burrows says have been hurt by a patchwork of local rules.
Broadly speaking, the bill does that by wiping out local governments’ ability to set rules beyond what the state already specifies on issues related to agriculture, business and commerce, finance, insurance, labor, occupations, property, local government and natural resources. It also allows individuals and businesses to sue the city for maintaining ordinances that violate the new law.
The law, which is set to take effect Sept. 1, has already been the subject of much debate surrounding the city’s plans to create mandatory work breaks for construction workers and others during periods of extreme heat.
The legislation’s critics have labeled it the “Death Star Bill” because they consider it so wide-ranging and powerful.
After weeks of complaints from council members who say the law’s vagueness is preventing them from doing their jobs, San Antonio leaders said Monday that the city has joined a lawsuit filed by the City of Houston earlier this month. Austin is also considering suing the state over the law.
“We are in solidarity with other Texas municipalities,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at a press conference Monday at City Hall. Also in attendance were City Attorney Andy Segovia, City Manager Erik Walsh and Councilwomen Teri Castillo (D5) and Melissa Cabello Havrda (D6).
“This is big government overreach, plain and simple, and it demonstrates the dangers of a radical agenda being codified session after session at the capital,” Nirenberg said.
Houston’s lawsuit claims HB 2127 is in conflict with the state constitution, which in 1912 gave cities the ability to govern themselves. The suit also suggests the new law lacks the “unmistakable clarity” required for a state to intervene in that authority.
The Texas Legislature has explored a number of bills in recent years that would restrict cities’ ability to regulate specific private employment practices, such as paid sick leave mandates, which are strongly opposed by the business community.
Rather than waiting to address those issues as they come up, proponents of HB 2127 say the law will prevent cities from venturing outside the policy areas that the state has explicitly given them authority to regulate in the first place.
Councilman Marc Whyte (D10), the council’s lone critic of the lawsuit, said HB 2127 “will keep city governments focused on city issues rather than trying to legislate on issues that the state regulates.”
“Lawsuits like the one announced today do nothing to help relationships with our other government entities such as the state, regardless of the outcome,” Whyte said in a press release.
The lawsuit San Antonio joined contends that HB 2127 significantly broadens the definition of “preemption,” or the legal concept used when one governing body seeks to restrict a lower government’s ability to set rules in a particular field. The idea is being deployed with increased frequency across the country to change the local governing landscape.
Segovia said the city “will be faced with litigation and continued ambiguity and vagueness” if HB 2127 takes effect.
“Ultimately city taxpayers will bear the brunt of these unanswered questions under HB 2127 through protracted litigation,” he said.
The law doesn’t allow people or businesses who sue the city to collect damages beyond their legal costs. If the lawsuit is deemed frivolous, the person who filed it must pay the city’s legal costs.
Nirenberg said Monday the City Council will continue passing ordinances as if the law didn’t exist. Plans for ordinance for work breaks, however, has already been scaled back to apply only to contractors who do business with the city.
