{"id":44753,"date":"2025-11-11T10:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T10:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44753\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T10:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T10:56:11","slug":"lawsuit-against-dallas-shows-erosion-of-local-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/44753\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit against Dallas shows erosion of local control"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas\u2019 ability to govern itself is under attack again now that the Texas Public Policy Foundation has filed a lawsuit <\/a>arguing that a slew of city ordinances are preempted under the 2023 Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, known as the \u201cDeath Star\u201d law. It prohibits cities from adopting regulations that go further than what state law allows.<\/p>\n

The complaint<\/a> filed late last month on behalf of three city residents comes after the foundation warned the city over the summer that it risked litigation<\/a> if it didn\u2019t repeal or amend more than a hundred ordinances. Now, the city is being sued over 83 ordinances, including rules related to massage businesses, convenience stores, boarding homes, trash collection and many others<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be honest. Big cities like Dallas have plenty of rules on the books that they don\u2019t really need and serve mostly as clutter. For instance, the lawsuit points to a provision in city code that requires transportation service vehicles to be insured and argues this rule is preempted because state law already covers vehicle insurance comprehensively. <\/p>\n

In this case, the \u201cDeath Star\u201d law\u2019s sweeping preemption wouldn\u2019t do much to hurt local government. But that isn\u2019t the case for everything the law blows up. <\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a rule in City Code that prevents massage parlors from operating in \u201cany place used for living or sleeping quarters.\u201d This is a perfectly reasonable way for cities to regulate an industry that\u2019s known for shady practices<\/a>. The Texas Public Policy Foundation argues the rule is preempted. <\/p>\n

Another section of city code sets a wide variety of regulations for convenience stores, including registration and fees, surveillance camera requirements, employee safety training, exterior lighting and others. <\/p>\n

The whole point of this chapter in code is to help manage crime at convenience stores. Many of these businesses have become crime magnets, and Dallas has a responsibility to manage and police them effectively<\/a>. Taking away some of the tools for doing that isn\u2019t helpful to residents. <\/p>\n

Texas lawmakers\u2019 efforts to lower the cost of business are laudable. But with the \u201cDeath Star\u201d law, they used a hammer instead of a scalpel, injuring an esteemed American tradition that local communities can determine many aspects of their government for themselves. <\/p>\n

Oftentimes, residents press their local elected leaders for new rules to deal with problems that affect their lives. After a Preston Hollow mansion put up extravagant Christmas decorations<\/a> that drew huge crowds and required a police presence, some cried out for new city rules to limit similar events in the future. <\/p>\n

Local governments trip and stumble all the time, but they\u2019re the most direct control the people have over their communities. Texas does itself a disservice by limiting their powers with a preemption law that goes further than necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas\u2019 ability to govern itself is under attack again now that the Texas Public Policy Foundation has filed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,112,27,293],"class_list":["post-44753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-editorials","tag-texas","tag-texas-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44753","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=44753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}