AUSTIN (KXAN) — A Texas appellate court has reversed a Travis County judge’s decision to throw out a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton against the city of Austin over its marijuana decriminalization ordinance.
“We have received a decision from the 15th Court of Appeals and thank the Court for its time and consideration. We are reviewing the Court’s ruling as we evaluate our next steps,” the city of Austin said in a statement.
In 2022, more than 85% of Austin voters approved a proposition to decriminalize having small amounts of the drug.
“This court ruling is a huge letdown. Austin voters made their voices loud and clear in 2022, and instead of respecting that, the State has chosen to ignore their will,” Mayor Pro Tem Vanessa Fuentes said. “Now, our police will be forced to waste time on minor marijuana cases instead of focusing on violent crimes. Once again, the State is stepping on local decisions that reflect the values Austin residents actually care about.”
While this ruling opens the door for officers to resume citing people for possession, city officials say their focus remains on more serious crimes.
“The voters wanted us to focus our police time on kind of more serious crimes and hopefully they’ll continue to do that — but the courts are saying that a policy requiring that is no longer legal,” Austin City Council Member Ryan Alter said.
KXAN has reached out to Attorney General Ken Paxton for comment.
San Marcos in the same boat
San Marcos got the same answer from the appellate court last Thursday. The court also issued an opinion siding with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, stating that San Marcos’ marijuana decriminalization ordinance violates state law.
Ground Game Texas was the group behind both the push in Austin and San Marcos to decriminalize marijuana. Catina Voellinger, the executive director said:
“These decisions don’t change the fact that the people of Austin and San Marcos spoke with one voice. It doesn’t change the fact that for years, the ordinance protected residents from arrest and criminalization over low-level possession. And it definitely doesn’t change our commitment to this fight.
“It changes how we fight—not why we fight. We will continue to work with our partners in San Marcos and Austin to craft policies that respond to this ruling while working to preserve the will of the voters who overwhelmingly turned out for these ordinances.”
In 2022, over 80% of San Marcos voters approved a proposition that ended low-level marijuana enforcement in the city. In 2024, Paxton sued San Marcos and other cities, including Austin and Killeen, over marijuana decriminalization ordinances passed around the same time or shortly after San Marcos.
“The Texas Local Government Code prohibits the ‘governing body of a municipality… municipal police department, municipal attorney, county attorney, district attorney, or criminal district attorney’ from ‘adopt[ing] a policy under which the entity will not fully enforce laws relating to drugs,’” the opinion filed in the Fifteenth Court of Appeals read.
“San Marcos, however, has passed a local ordinance prohibiting its police officers from issuing citations and making arrests for certain low-level marijuana offenses,” it continued.
A Hays County district court judge dismissed the lawsuit in July 2024, but it is now likely to go to trial.
In a statement to KXAN, the city of San Marcos confirmed it cannot enforce the marijuana ordinance “pending a trial on the merits.”
KXAN’s Sam Stark contributed to this report. You can find his full report on San Marcos’ ruling here.
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