Texas Judge Rejects Attorney General’s Attempt To Reverse Dallas Marijuana Decriminalization Law Approved By Voters

A Texas decide has dominated {that a} native marijuana decriminalization regulation permitted by Dallas voters final yr can proceed to be carried out— denying a request from the Republican state lawyer basic that sought to quickly block the reform as a lawsuit proceeds.

On Friday, 134th Civil District Court Judge Dale Tillery denied a movement for non permanent injunction from Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that goals to undermine the native regulation by allowing continued enforcement of cannabis criminalization within the state’s third most populous metropolis.

The one-page order from the decide states: “Upon consideration of the pleadings, the application, responses, evidence, and oral arguments presented, if any, the Court finds that the application is hereby DENIED.”

This doesn’t imply the lawsuit from Paxton is useless altogether. But, not less than in the interim, the decide has decided that the decriminalization coverage can proceed because the litigation unfolds.

In a press launch following the decide’s order, Dallas City Councilmember Adam Bazaldua mentioned “voters gave us a mandate last year—over two-thirds voted in favor of misdemeanor marijuana decriminalization.”

“It is not for the Texas attorney general to try to overrule that vote,” he mentioned. “Black and brown residents had been disproportionately criminalized in our city for the possession of a substance that’s legal in over half the country. Voters quite reasonably chose to end that injustice, and to allow law enforcement to focus on more serious issues. I applaud Judge Tillery’s decision to let the law remain in effect while the case proceeds.”

Catina Voellinger, govt director of Ground Game Texas, which has organized quite a few native reform campaigns in recent times, referred to as the decide’s ruling “a victory for the democratic process,” including that “the attorney general should not be able to overturn the people’s vote.”

“We crafted the Dallas Freedom Act to comply with state law, and it would have done real harm to the city to put a stop to its enforcement while this case makes its way through the court,” she said. This regulation permits Dallas residents to breathe simpler, with out the worry of being needlessly criminalized for merely possessing private use quantities of marijuana.”

This comes a few month after the Dallas Police Department instructed officers to stop arresting or citing people for possession of up to four ounces of marijuana, in accordance with the voter-approved poll initiative.

Paxton had filed a lawsuit with the intent to invalidate the regulation simply weeks after the November vote. It’s one in all a number of examples of the state official making an attempt to leverage the court docket system to reverse native hashish reform efforts.

Numerous Texas cities have enacted native decriminalization legal guidelines in recent times, and, final January, the lawyer basic equally sought to dam the reform in Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton.

State district judges dismissed two of the lawsuits—which argue that state regulation prohibiting marijuana preempts the native insurance policies—in Austin and San Marcos. The metropolis of Elgin reached a settlement, with the native authorities declaring that decriminalization was by no means carried out there regardless of voter approval of the initiative.

Dallas lawmakers formally put the marijuana decriminalization initiative on the poll in August after activists turned in enough petitions for the reform. Cannabis icon and music legend Willie Nelson had urged Dallas voters to pass the marijuana measure.

Prior to final August’s vote on poll placement, some members of the Dallas City Council had expressed curiosity in streamlining the method of decriminalizing hashish by appearing legislatively, but plans to introduce the proposal at a hearing in June didn’t materialize, leaving the matter to voters.

Here’s what the Dallas regulation accomplishes: 

• The measure prevents police from making arrests or issuing citations for Class A or B misdemeanor hashish possession offenses, except it’s a part of a excessive precedence felony investigation for narcotics or violent crime.
• Further, it says “Dallas police shall not consider the odor of marijuana or hemp to constitute probable cause for any search or seizure.”
• The metropolis supervisor and chief of police is required to organize quarterly reviews on the implementation of the coverage change, with details about any marijuana possession arrests or citations that have to be submitted to the Dallas City Council.

Also on the poll final November, voters within the Texas cities of Lockhart and Bastrop equally elected to move native decriminalization ordinances.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has lashed out in opposition to the municipal hashish reform efforts.

“Local communities such as towns, cities and counties, they don’t have the authority to override state law,” the governor said in May “If they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their legislators. Let’s legislate to work to make sure that the state, as a state, will pass some of the law.”

He mentioned it will result in “chaos” and create an “unworkable system” for voters in particular person cities to be “picking and choosing” the legal guidelines they need abide by beneath state statute.

Abbott has beforehand mentioned that he doesn’t believe people should be in jail over marijuana possession—though he mistakenly steered on the time that Texas had already enacted a decriminalization coverage to that finish.

That mentioned, low-level marijuana possession would be decriminalized in Texas if a brand new invoice filed this week by a key House chief is enacted.

Paxton had used extra inflammatory rhetoric when his workplace introduced that it was suing the 5 cities over their native legal guidelines decriminalizing marijuana, vowing to overrule the “anarchy” of “pro-crime extremists” who advocated for the reform.

In 2023, Ground Game launched a report that looked at the impacts of the marijuana reform laws. It discovered that the measures will maintain tons of of individuals out of jail, at the same time as they’ve led to blowback from regulation enforcement in some cities. The initiatives have additionally pushed voter turnout by being on the poll, the report mentioned.

Another cannabis decriminalization measure that went before voters in San Antonio that yr was overwhelmingly defeated, however that proposal additionally included unrelated provisions to stop enforcement of abortion restrictions.

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Meanwhile, Rep. Joe Moody (D)’s marijuana decriminalization invoice for the 2025 session is the latest of nearly two dozen cannabis-related proposals filed so far in Texas for the present legislative session. Various different measures would legalize adult-use marijuana, prohibit sure hemp-derived merchandise, take away prison penalties for hashish possession and modify the state’s current medical marijuana legal guidelines, amongst others.

Moody sponsored a similar marijuana decriminalization bill last legislative session, in 2023. That measure, HB 218, handed the House on an 87–59 vote however later died in a Senate committee.

The House had already passed earlier cannabis decriminalization proposals through the two earlier legislative periods, in 2021 and 2019. But the efforts have consistently stalled in the Senate amid opposition from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who presides over the chamber.

Patrick final yr directed a Senate committee final yr to look at points round drinks containing THC and put together laws that may ban the sale of intoxicating hemp merchandise.

The lieutenant governor not too long ago emphasised a survey consequence exhibiting that greater than half (55 %) of Texans need the state to rein its largely unregulated marketplace for hemp-derived THC. But he concurrently ignored the survey’s different findings: that even more Texans want the state to legalize and regulate marijuana for each medical and grownup use.

The polling, from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs, discovered that almost 4 in 5 (79 %) Texans help legalizing the sale and use of medical marijuana with a health care provider’s suggestion, whereas greater than 3 in 5 (62 %) help legalizing and regulating an adult-use hashish market.

Almost 7 in 10 (69 %), in the meantime, mentioned they assume the state ought to decriminalize marijuana for private use.

There is bipartisan help within the survey for every of the reforms.

What Patrick’s feedback bought proper is that almost all Texans assume legal guidelines round hashish want to vary: Only 22 % of these surveyed favored preserving the state’s marijuana legal guidelines as they’re.

Patrick has focused hemp-derived THC repeatedly throughout his time in workplace, most not too long ago by together with laws that may ban the merchandise in his checklist of precedence payments. And he endorsed previous laws that would ban all forms of consumable THC in the state.

Read the Texas district court docket decide’s order within the Dallas marijuana decriminalization case beneath: 

 

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Photo parts courtesy of rawpixel and Philip Steffan.