Texas
Ken Paxton is suing five Texas cities over their marijuana decriminalization ordinances
Back in 2022, voters in five municipalities in Texas – Austin, Elgin, Killeen, Denton and San Marcos – approved ballot measures that would decriminalize low-level marijuana possession. The initiative was led by Ground Game Texas, a progressive organization whose polity priorities include protections for “workers, wages and weed.”
In all five cities, the ordinances had overwhelming support: 85% of Austin voters were in favor, while Killeen, with the lowest share of votes in favor, still passed the measure with 69% voting “yay.”
Now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing to block the ordinances, saying they run afoul of state law. In a press release last week, Paxton said the cities “violate the lawful statutes designed to protect the public from crime, drugs, and violence.”
At least one nonprofit, Decriminalize Denton, has said it will be filing a petition to have Paxton’s lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that it has no legal standing. But according to marijuana law expert Frank Snyder of the Texas A&M University School of Law, Paxton may indeed have a case.
Snyder spoke with the Texas Standard about the ordinances, Paxton’s challenge, and what we can expect to see as the legal fight plays out.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Five Texas cities passed these ordinances in 2022: Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin, Denton. Remind us what these ordinances do.
Frank Snyder: Essentially, they prohibit police officers in those cities – and other enforcement officials – from going after low-level marijuana offenses such as possession. Essentially, the ordinance says that the cities are de-prioritizing marijuana enforcement.
And what does de-prioritizing mean?
It means, essentially, that while it’s still illegal, and the police still can do it, they should put that at the very bottom of the list and should not, in fact, be arresting people simply for possession of relatively small amounts of marijuana.
Well, as you’re probably aware, the attorney general says he will “not stand idly by as cities run by pro-crime extremists deliberately violate Texas law.” What sort of argument is he making here, that there is something in particular in these cities that is illegal under Texas law?
Yeah, I mean, shorn of the rhetoric, what he’s basically saying is Texas makes marijuana illegal under its Controlled Substances Act and under the federal Controlled Substances Act. Cities like the ones you mentioned have home rule, which allows them to pass ordinances that have the effect of law so long as under the Texas Constitution, they don’t conflict with the laws passed by the Legislature.
These laws theoretically don’t violate that particular provision. But Texas also has a statute that says no municipality may refuse to enforce the drug laws. That was passed back in 1997, actually. And thus these ordinances directly conflict with state law. And the attorney general is arguing that they therefore can’t stand.
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Well, does Paxton’s lawsuit then hold any legal weight, or is this all about politics? How do you see it?
There may well be politics involved in it, but it looks to me like the suits are very well-grounded. You know, there’s been another suit out, the Bell County-Killeen suit, about whether the county could enforce these things. But ordinarily, the state has the authority to override municipalities’ laws. And therefore, in my view, the suit’s on solid legal grounds.
At least one organization, Decriminalize Denton, is seeking to have this lawsuit dismissed. Where do you see this headed?
Well, they’re making an interesting – I haven’t seen their paperwork, but I’ve heard about it – they’re making an argument that, in fact, it’s not really having any effect, and therefore the suit is moot; there’s no reason to bring the lawsuit.
My view in the courts is that Paxton is likely to prevail. Now, what that entails – I mean, how you go about ordering the city officials to enforce laws that they don’t want to enforce – that’s where things get tricky. Charging someone with not enforcing the law, when in fact, district attorneys have discretion about how to go about their duties, that raises really interesting questions.
These cities, in some respects, don’t seem to be outliers, to the extent that you can go just about anywhere in Texas – go to a truckstop or a convenience store – and you’ll see gummies and and vapes and other products for sale. Many of these products claim to contain THC-9.
It doesn’t seem like there’s a big push in the first place, even in some of the cities that have not passed these ordinances. And I’m just curious about how that lack of enforcement or apparent lack of enforcement might come into play here in these arguments.
I think that’s a really great point. One of the things that’s complicating things is how complicated the marijuana regulations are now. Plants with THC levels above 0.3 are illegal. But if you take hemp and you process it enough, you will get some THC out of it, which is theoretically legal under the federal farm bill.
And so nobody really has figured out exactly where the line is on these products. And they’re flooding the market, which makes it very difficult for police to spend time, you know, wandering through convenience stores, looking for products like this.
And so the advantage of a low-level enforcement prohibition is that it stops police from taking lots of time trying to figure those things out. So that’s what the voters presumably had in mind when they passed these ordinances.
Texas
North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak
A middle school in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD is closed Friday after an outbreak of norovirus.
According to the school district, they closed Creekview Middle School in Fort Worth on Friday to sanitize and clean the building. The district said they plan on reopening the school on Monday.
The district said children started to get sick on Tuesday with what appeared to be a stomach virus and that on Wednesday it spread to a larger group.
EMSISD said they reached out to the Tarrant County Public Health Department and that they recommended disinfecting and cleaning the school on Wednesday night and reopening the next day.
More cases continued to be reported on Thursday, so the public health department then recommended that they clean again and close the campus on Friday.
Parents were notified of the district’s decision on Thursday afternoon.
The district has not said how many students and staff were sickened in the outbreak.
Officials with Children’s Medical Center said that because norovirus is highly contagious and resistant to many common hand sanitizers, it presents a unique challenge for families.
The hospital says hand sanitizer isn’t enough and recommends thorough hand washing with soap and water. They also recommend parents keep their children home for a full 48 hours after symptoms stop to prevent further outbreaks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are approximately 2,500 norovirus outbreaks in the United States each year and that they are most common from November through April. For further tips on preventing the spread of norovirus, visit the CDC.
Texas
Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.
So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.
Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.
Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.
Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.
Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, is joined by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: AP/Eric Gay
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.
“It is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday.
Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative, was a later entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrive before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: AP/Allison Robbert
Cornyn’s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.
Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking “a serious look” at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.
Still, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump’s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.
“I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three,” Trump said earlier this month.
The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
Trump hasn’t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas’ 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.
Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.
Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be “opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out” and that the stories about the situation do not represent “all the facts.”
Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.
Texas
Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting his reckless driving caused a head-on collision in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country music group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said.
Domenick Chavez, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Dec. 22, 2023, crash in Hudspeth County, according to a news release Tuesday from El Paso County District James Montoya, who also oversees nearby Hudspeth County.
The news release said Chavez was driving a truck westbound when he tried to pass four vehicles on a two-way undivided highway and collided head-on with Lynch’s eastbound truck. Lynch, 65, of Dell City, was trapped in her vehicle and died. Prosecutors said Chavez was traveling between 106 mph and 114 mph.
Prosecutors said alcohol wasn’t a factor in the crash but that Chavez was driving on a suspended license, which had been revoked due to his failure to comply with DWI-related surcharges and penalties from convictions in 2014 and 2017.
Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, formed The Dixie Chicks in the late 1980s. Lynch and Macy eventually left the band and Natalie Maines joined the sisters. The trio hit commercial fame with their breakthrough album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998 and have won 13 Grammys. In 2020, the band changed its name to The Chicks.
In a social media post after Lynch’s death, The Chicks said Lynch had “infectious energy and humor” and was “instrumental” in the band’s early success.
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