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The City of San Antonio is suing Texas over House Bill 2127, also known as the Preemption Bill or Death Star Bill.
The city is filing as an intervener, joining a lawsuit filed by the City of Houston earlier this month. San Antonio says HB 2127, titled the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, is vague, violates the Texas Constitution and blocks the rights of home-rule cities to pass their own ordinances. The law preempts cities from passing ordinances that are regulated by state law.
At a news conference on Monday, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the law is a big government overreach. “And it demonstrates the dangers of a radical agenda being codified session, after session, at the capitol,” he added.
It would affect cities' abilities to enforce local ordinances on state regulated codes, including Agriculture, Business and Commerce, Finance, Insurance, Labor, Local Government, Occupations, and Property.
The lawsuit alleged that HB 2721 "contradicts the constitutional authority given to home rule cities like San Antonio."
“HB2127 tries to preempt home-rule cities’ local regulation of multiple areas of local authority through broad, generalized statements of preemption. However, HB2127’s provisions are so vague as to constitute no regulation at all. Preemption of home-rule cities’ local law requires unmistakable clarity, and HB2127 misses that mark by a long shot,” the lawsuit explained.
San Antonio City Attorney Andy Segovia said the vague nature of the language of the bill makes any existing city ordinance susceptible to lawsuits.
“I could hire 20 very highly reputable attorneys to … comb our city ordinances and give me a list of what HB 2721 would impact — I’d get 20 different lists,” he said. "That’s how vague and ambiguous it is, and we’re not going to start the game of trying to self-select what ordinances would be impacted.”
Under Texas law, home-rule cities are authorized to enact a city charter and create local regulations, ordinances, and policies unless they’re forbidden by state law. By comparison, general law cities refer to existing state laws on how they operate.
District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez, previously chaired the city’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee, which connects the city and Bexar County, to discuss potential legislation that would affect both entities. Pelaez said the law is indecipherable and clumsily written.
“It has to be re-written or clarified by the courts in order for cities to be compliant,” he said. “Sadly, it’s going to require a major expenditure of attorney fees to avoid the chaos that this vague law has created for us.”
While most of the city council supported the lawsuit, newly elected San Antonio Councilman Marc Whyte of District 10 opposed it. He said the law is good for business.
“This is a lose-lose situation, in my opinion,” he said. “If the law gets overturned, then a good bill that would benefit Texas businesses goes down. But in a scenario where the city loses the suit, we’ve spent time and money — taxpayer dollars — on a suit we shouldn’t be involved in.”
Unless there is intervention from the courts, the preemption law goes into effect on Sept. 1.
