Texas’ Crackdown on Local Laws Draws Appellate Judges’ Concerns

A Texas law forcing cities and counties to repeal potentially thousands of local ordinances will unleash a flood of litigation if they’re forced to comply, a Texas appeals court justice predicted Wednesday.

Local governments will suffer “a death by a thousand cuts” while trying to kill the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, Chief Justice Darlene Byrne of the Court of Appeals, Third District, said during oral arguments in Austin.

“How do you stop the bleeding if multiple courts say it’s unconstitutional?” Byrne asked a lawyer for the state.

For now, only one court has concluded that the law is unconstitutional. That ruling, from a Travis County trial court judge, came days before it was set to take effect in September 2023. Notably, it binds only Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso—the three cities that sued the state to stop it.

“Death Star”

Although other cities have been slow to repeal ordinances in the wake of the court’s decision, they remain vulnerable to a lawsuit under the law, which was coined the “Death Star” bill. It amends eight state regulatory codes, including labor, to block a municipality or county from adopting any ordinance the state doesn’t expressly allow.

Business leaders argued that a patchwork of local ordinances caused confusion and was difficult to regulate. For instance, one city might require employees to provide workers rest breaks, while an adjacent city doesn’t.

Lawyer Rance Craft of the attorney general’s office spent little time on the law’s substance during oral arguments, focusing instead on the lower court’s ruling. The court erred, he said, because the plaintiff cities had suffered no harm at the time since the law hadn’t gone into effect.

Beyond that, the cities wrongly sued the state, which he says lacks authority to enforce the law. Only a person who threatens to take action against a city for enforcing a preempted ordinance can be sued, he said.

“Global peace can’t happen,” he said, arguing against a statewide order banning the law.

Appearing to be unpersuaded that the state enjoys immunity, Byrne asked, “Is the state delegating the ability to enforce to every Tom, Dick, and Harry?”

Collyn Peddie, in-house counsel for the City of Houston, said the law harms the city by forcing it to review all of its ordinances to determine which ones are pre-empted—a daunting task requiring significant time and funds.

Pressed by Justice Maggie Ellis for specific ordinances that would need to come down, Peddie mentioned a Houston program forcing city-contracted vendors to prioritize worker health insurance.

The pre-enforcement challenge is proper because “cities do not have to wait until the sky falls,” Peddie argued.

The case is Texas v. Houston, Tex. App., 3d Dist., No. 03-23-00531-cv, oral argument 4/23/25.