After the Dallas City Council implemented a mandatory paid sick-leave ordinance, two Dallas-area employers have challenged the ordinance in court. Now the state’s top lawyer is joining the case.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he would join the legal challenge against the ordinance, which was approved in April of this year, noting that it is similar to an Austin ordinance struck down by a Texas court last year and a San Antonio ordinance stayed by a trial court last month.
“The Dallas City Council’s decision to enact this ordinance in the face of other legal challenges successfully stopping similar laws is yet another example of the lawlessness and disregard for working Texans that is becoming all too common among local governments in our larger cities,” said Paxton.
“Not only would this ordinance harm the ability of Texans to find and keep jobs, it is a blatant attempt to silence the millions of other voters throughout our State who disagree with the agenda of urban elites, even after the courts have made it clear they cannot do so,” he added.
Legislation to pre-empt the implementation of job-killing wage mandates by cities was passed through the Texas Senate earlier this year by State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe). Unfortunately, it was ultimately killed in the Texas House by State Affairs Committee Chairman Dade Phelan (R–Beaumont) after he demanded pro-LGBT language be added to the bill.
At the time the Dallas City Council passed the ordinance, then-Mayor Mike Rawlings exposed corruption surrounding the vote, accusing at least one elected official of bribery.
The lawsuit against the city of Dallas is currently in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
