explained<\/a>\u00a0why our members are determined to challenge this legislation that targets students of color and LGBTQ students: \u201cWhen educators step in the classroom, we make a promise to support our students and their families. SB 12 asks us to set aside both that promise and the state\u2019s own educator code of ethics to be foot soldiers for Texas\u2019s anti-inclusion crusade.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nA\u00a0narrow\u00a0ruling with\u00a0statewide\u00a0implications\u00a0<\/p>\n
The preliminary injunction currently applies only to Houston ISD, Katy ISD, and Plano ISDs.\u00a0Plaintiffs had sought a statewide block, but the court declined to extend that relief broadly after finding that Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath had\u00a0not\u00a0yet taken steps to enforce the law and dismissed him as a defendant for the time being.\u00a0Because enforcement authority under SB 12 rests with individual school districts rather than the Commissioner, the court\u2019s reach was limited to the three districts named in the lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The injunction came about through an unusual procedural circumstance that\u00a0U.S.\u00a0District\u00a0Judge Charles Eskridge addressed in his opinion. Despite having already implemented SB 12 policies, Houston, Katy, and Plano ISDs each\u00a0declined to defend the law in court.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Katy ISD\u00a0stated\u00a0it \u201ctakes no position\u201d on the injunction, and Plano ISD likewise took \u201cno position on the constitutionality or propriety of SB 12.\u201d Eskridge did not let that pass quietly. Drawing on a baseball metaphor\u00a0(spring training\u00a0is\u00a0going on, after all), he wrote that while a federal court\u2019s role is to call \u201cballs and strikes,\u201d it is equally the umpire\u2019s duty to \u201ccall an out when the batter won\u2019t even step into the box,\u201d and that a federal court does not take the place of defendants who refuse to defend their own actions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The injunction was granted\u00a0as unopposed\u00a0by the defendants and described the\u00a0districts\u2019\u00a0responses as \u201cterse and avoidant\u201d and found they had\u00a0sought\u00a0the \u201cthe path of least resistance,\u201d\u00a0implementing a law they would not defend on the merits in a federal court. That choice, the judge wrote, came with consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The injunction blocks several key\u00a0provisions\u00a0of SB 12, including:\u00a0<\/p>\n
The injunction blocks several key\u00a0provisions\u00a0of SB 12, including:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Club Provision, which prohibits public school clubs \u201cbased on sexual orientation or gender identity;\u00a0<\/p>\n
The DEI Provision, which prohibits\u00a0assignment and\u00a0pursuit of \u201cdiversity, equity, and\u00a0inclusion\u00a0duties\u201d in public schools;\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Social Transition Provision,\u00a0which requires\u00a0school districts to adopt policies prohibiting employees from \u201cassisting\u201d students with \u201csocial transitioning;\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The LGBT Curriculum Provision,\u00a0which prohibits\u00a0public school employees or third parties from providing \u201cinstruction,\u00a0guidance, activities, or programming regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the injunction currently covers only the three named districts, Eskridge\u2019s opinion\u00a0carried a direct warning for every school district in Texas.\u00a0Invoking the U.S. Constitution\u2019s Supremacy Clause, the judge pointed to Galveston ISD\u2019s decision to\u00a0refuse<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0post\u00a0the Ten Commandments under SB 10, another law from the same legislative session, as a real-world example of what districts must do when state law conflicts with federal law.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cThe Supremacy Clause dictates a clear answer,\u201d Eskridge wrote: \u201cfollow federal law.\u201d For Texas AFT members in districts not yet covered by the injunction, that language is significant. It suggests that a district choosing to align with federal law over a conflicting state directive would be on firm constitutional footing, even at the risk of pushback from the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For students in the three covered districts, the injunction restores freedoms that should never have been taken away. Texas AFT\u2019s position is straightforward: SB 12 should not have been signed into law, and the fight does not end with three districts. The case now moves forward through the federal courts, and the\u00a0goal\u00a0remains\u00a0a statewide injunction that protects every Texas student and educator from a law that was constitutionally flawed from the start.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Publish Date: February 27, 2026 12:42 pmAuthor: Texas AFT A\u00a0federal\u00a0court\u00a0granted a preliminary\u00a0injunction\u00a0blocking the enforcement of key aspects of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":["post-187304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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