On Wednesday, Paxton announced that he was filing lawsuits against several Texas cities that have decriminalized low-level marijuana possession.
Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton have all adopted ordinances or policies to prevent police from enforcing misdemeanor laws around the possession of marijuana. In his press release, Paxton called marijuana “an illicit substance that psychologists have increasingly linked to psychosis and other negative consequences.”
In the press release, Paxton said the state’s local government code forbids political subdivisions from adopting “a policy under which the entity will not fully enforce laws relating to drugs.” He also said the Texas Constitution notes that it is unlawful for municipalities to adopt ordinances that are inconsistent with laws enacted by the Texas Legislature.
“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 in his press release. “This unconstitutional action by municipalities demonstrates why Texas must have a law to ‘follow the law.’ It’s quite simple: the legislature passes every law after a full debate on the issues, and we don’t allow cities the ability to create anarchy by picking and choosing the laws they enforce.”
An organization called Ground Game Texas has been behind the efforts to decriminalize low-level marijuana possession in the cities Paxton is suing. The group also recently launched a similar effort in Dallas.
“Ken Paxton’s lawsuits represent an antidemocratic assault on the constitutional authority of Texas Home Rule cities to set local law enforcement priorities,” Julie Oliver, executive director of Ground Game Texas, said in a statement. “In each of the cities sued, a supermajority of voters adopted a policy to deprioritize marijuana enforcement in order to reduce racially-biased law enforcement outcomes and save scarce public resources for higher priority public safety needs.”
She added, “Furthermore, Paxton’s slander of so-called ‘pro crime’ organizations that support marijuana reform policies is profoundly ironic coming from a person who is under criminal indictment for securities fraud, under federal investigation for other financial crimes, and has admitted to violating the civil rights of whistleblowers within his own office.”
Oliver said this latest move by Paxton is an obvious attempt to deflect from his embarrassing legal jeopardy and diminishing political influence.“Nothing is going to change." – Julie Oliver, Ground Game Texas
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She later told the Observer that she expected something like this could happen. “Anything is possible with the leadership we have in this state,” she said. Asked if she thinks the cities will put up a fight in court, Oliver said: “I would expect the cities should fight for their voters. You have to remember, every one of these initiatives passed anywhere from 64% of the vote to 85.5% of the vote. So, I would expect that cities will honor the will of their voters and defend these policies within their cities.”
Oliver said these lawsuits will likely take a long time to work through the courts. Meanwhile, Ground Game Texas is pursuing similar decriminalization policies in Lubbock, Lockhart, San Antonio and Dallas. Oliver said the organization has no plans of slowing down these efforts in light of Paxton's suits. “We are still forging ahead with our plans to decriminalize cannabis in the city of Dallas,” Oliver said. “Nothing is going to change. We are on very solid ground when it comes to the policies that we’ve implemented in every one of these cities.
"In my opinion, this is a losing issue for Ken Paxton,” Oliver said. “Marijuana reform is incredibly popular in our state. … I don’t know why he would choose to pick this particular fight.”
She has a couple of suspicions, though. “My suspicion is he either wants to continue to lock up Black and Brown people in this state, and/or he knows that people come out and vote for this,” Oliver said. “It is a turnout boost. Marijuana on the ballot boosts turnout, and he wants to dampen the enthusiasm for the November elections when we’ll have this on the ballot in at least two cities. … He wants to dampen that enthusiasm in the hopes of suppressing voter turnout in a presidential election and we are not going to stand by and let that happen.”
The city of Killeen is also being sued by Bell County over its marijuana decriminalization ordinance. Local attorney Philip Kingston is representing the city in the suit.
On Paxton’s lawsuits, Kingston said, “I think it is pretty clear that he has the authority to test the constitutionality of state laws and municipal ordinances, but I don’t think he has the authority to bring the specific allegations he’s bringing here, which would invalidate cities’ home rule authority.”
He explained that until recently it was extremely clear that cities had full authority to spend their money the way they chose to spend it. “Cities like Dallas, Killeen and Denton and a bunch of others have chosen to not spend that money on low-level marijuana enforcement and that’s legal,” he said.“There was at some point going to be a reckoning with the state.” – Daryoush Austin Zamhariri, Texas Cannabis Collective
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However, the state legislature passed a law several years ago that said no one can ignore the provision of the health and safety code that makes marijuana possession illegal. “That act of the legislature is pretty clearly unconstitutional based on a principle of prosecutorial discretion,” Kingston said, stating his belief that it’s important that prosecutors and police officers have discretion over how to enforce certain laws. “Criminal cases have different facts each time, and prosecutors have to have the ability to make those decisions, and that discretion applies to also the police,” Kingston said.
He cited the Dallas Police Department’s general order that deprioritizes the enforcement of some misdemeanor marijuana possession laws as an example
Daryoush Austin Zamhariri, creator and chief editor of the Fort Worth-based Texas Cannabis Collective news site, told the Observer that when Paxton uses phrases like “pro crime,” he is simply projecting an image of himself. “We stand with the citizens and organizations that worked tirelessly in Austin, Denton, San Marcos, Killeen and Elgin,” Zamhariri said.
He, too, expected something like this could happen. “He has been one of the staunchest prohibitionists in the country,” Zamhariri said of Paxton. “There was at some point going to be a reckoning with the state.”
Zamhariri does not think the cities are going to sit by and let all of this happen. “It’s not just going to be something where everybody just gives up and says ‘Oh well,’” he said. “I think that’s contradictory to what this whole movement has been about. So, if we have to keep fighting, we’re just going to keep fighting.”
