Texas Supreme Court strikes down Laredo's plastic bag ban, likely ending others

[TexasTowelie]

by Emma Platoff, Texas Tribune


The Texas Supreme Court handed a loss to local government on Friday, striking down a Laredo ban on plastic bags. The decision imperils about a dozen other cities' bans across the state.

In a decision viewed as one of the court’s most highly politicized of the term, justices ruled unanimously that a state law on solid waste disposal pre-empted the local ordinance. That decision drew immediate responses from both sides of the aisle, with high praise from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican who had weighed in against the bans, and condemnation from environmental groups, which had argued the ban kept at bay the harsh environmental damage brought by plastics.

The court’s ruling resolves a long-standing question over whether local governments may impose such bans, as cities including Austin, Fort Stockton and Port Aransas have in recent years. Friday’s unanimous holding makes those bans unenforceable as well, and likely tosses the issue over to the Texas Legislature for debate.

The court said in a unanimous holding that its intent was not to wade into the "roving, roiling debate over local control of public affairs" but simply to resolve the legal question at hand.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/22/texas-supreme-court-rules-bag-bans/

[walkingman]

1. This could affect Austin......I hope not. Texas Legislature is anti-environment and owned by OIL.

[Xipe Totec]

2. And Padre Island nt

[magicarpet]

3. Hip... Hip... Hooray... PETROL !