Voters in Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton approved the policies in 2022. The attorney general said the ordinances are inconsistent with laws enacted by the Texas Legislature.

I’m sure this will gain him a lot of help in the next election.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing five cities — Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton — to block their ordinances decriminalizing low-level marijuana possession.

In 2022, voters in the five cities approved policies that would end arrests and citations for possession of less than four ounces of marijuana. An initiative spearheaded by Ground Game Texas — the progressive group that first launched the proposition in Austin — worked with local organizations in the other four cities and succeeded in pushing for similar policies to appear on the ballots.

Paxton said in a Wednesday press release that the cities violated state laws and the Texas constitution concerning marijuana possession and distribution, claiming it to be unlawful for municipalities to adopt ordinances inconsistent with laws enacted by the Texas Legislature.

  • rwhitisissle@lemy.lol
    40·
    5 months ago

    The party of states’ rights and “keeping the government out of your private life” really like telling cities what they can and can’t do in order to reduce the intrusion of the government into their private lives. I mean, let’s be honest. This is basically being targeted because this is going to significantly reduce the number of non-violent offenders (almost all of whom are gonna be people of color, because damn if the cops don’t love pulling over black people to try and find weed in their car) ingested into the prison industrial complex and the GOP has a fuckload of skin in that game.

  • GluWu@lemm.ee
    211·
    5 months ago

    Even conservatives in Texas want weed. Christian boomers are going to drag the US into the grave with them.

    Please hurry.

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
    10·
    5 months ago

    IANAL, but I’m not sure that’s how laws in nested jurisdictions like the US work. If a city doesn’t want to spend resources to enforce state law, or if a state doesn’t want to spend resources to enforce a federal law, who’s gonna make 'em? Obviously constitutional restrictions exist for all US governments, but you can’t like, coerce a sub-jurisdiction to do anything beyond that, can you? That’s why ten states rejected the ACA and were able to legally do so.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    7·
    5 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing five cities — Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton — to block their ordinances decriminalizing low-level marijuana possession.

    In 2022, voters in the five cities approved policies that would end arrests and citations for possession of less than four ounces of marijuana.

    An initiative spearheaded by Ground Game Texas — the progressive group that first launched the proposition in Austin — worked with local organizations in the other four cities and succeeded in pushing for similar policies to appear on the ballots.

    Paxton said in a Wednesday press release that the cities violated state laws and the Texas constitution concerning marijuana possession and distribution, claiming it to be unlawful for municipalities to adopt ordinances inconsistent with laws enacted by the Texas Legislature.

    However, Paxton argues the Texas Local Government Code forbids them from adopting policies that would result in not fully enforcing drug-related laws.

    “I will not stand idly by as cities run by pro-crime extremists deliberately violate Texas law and promote the use of illicit drugs that harm our communities,” Paxton said.

    The original article contains 305 words, the summary contains 181 words. Saved 41%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!