Texas City’s Anti-Pot Enforcement Ordinance Violates State Law

A left-leaning Texas city—and likely many others—must stop banning arrests and citations for marijuana possession, a Republican-controlled statewide appeals court said Thursday.

The decision from the Court of Appeals, Fifteenth District, makes clear that state law preempts contrary city ordinances related to drug possession—a blow to liberals’ effort to loosen the state’s strict pot laws.

“There is no reasonable way to read the ordinance that does not directly conflict with the state statute prohibiting the adoption of policies under which the entity will not fully enforce such laws,” Justice April Farris wrote in placing a temporary injunction on a voter-approved ...