A Texas judge has ruled that a controversial bill dubbed “the Death Star law” is unconstitutional, just days before the law was set to take effect when it would have hurt many local labor laws, including paid sick leave and mandated water breaks for some employees toiling outside in a brutal heatwave.
The state district judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued her decision in response to a lawsuit against Texas filed by the cities of Houston, San Antonio and El Paso. Gamble agreed with arguments made by the cities that the bill is vague and unclear on which ordinances the municipalities must cancel before it was set to take effect.
The law was an attempt by Texas Republicans to nullify and prevent local municipalities and counties from passing local ordinances that go further than state law. It was slated to prevent legislation requiring paid sick leave for workers, eviction protections for tenants, and would nullify local ordinances that mandated water breaks for construction workers in Austin and Dallas and prompted San Antonio to scale back efforts to enact a similar ordinance.
Texas is expected to appeal, but worker advocate groups praised the decision.
“This ruling allows critical, life-saving local policies to remain in place – including worker protections like rest breaks for construction workers – reflecting the importance of local leaders being able to respond to their communities’ urgent needs. We celebrate this win today, but we also acknowledge that this fight is far from over,” wrote Local Progress Texas, Texas AFL-CIO, Every Texan, & Workers Defense Project in a joint statement in response to the ruling.
The statement added: “The Death Star law is part of a trend of Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country using preemption as a tactic to undermine local policies that protect vulnerable Americans and concentrate power in the hands of extreme lawmakers and their corporate interests. We hope that the Texas supreme court will uphold this decision to protect local democracy.”
