The Texas Supreme Court struck down the city of Laredo's plastic bag ban—a decision that will likely overturn similar bans in about a dozen other cities, including Austin, Fort Stockton and Port Aransas. The court ruled Friday that only the state has the authority to regulate solid waste disposal in Texas. In the 19-page opinion, Chief Justice Nathan Hecht wrote that the Texas Constitution prohibits city ordinances from conflicting with state law. "Both sides of the debate ... assert public-policy arguments raising economic, environmental and uniformity concerns," Hecht said. "We must take statutes as they are written, and the one before us is written quite clearly. Its limitation on local control encompasses the ordinance." The Laredo Merchants Association sued the city in March 2015 to overturn the ordinance, arguing that state law pre-empts the bag ban. The move was supported by 20 state senators and representatives, all Republicans, that filed an amicus brief in support of the merchants for an earlier appeal of the case. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also backed the merchants. A press release from his office states that the ruling "effectively invalidates unlawful bag bans across Texas." "I hope that Laredo, Austin, and any other jurisdictions that have enacted illegal bag bans will take note and voluntarily bring their ordinances into compliance with state law," Paxton said in a statement. "Should they decline to do so, I expect the ruling will be used to invalidate any other illegal bag bans statewide." In a statement after today's ruling, Laredo mayor Pete Saenz called the decision a "major blow to all Texans who want to see a cleaner, healthier and more beautiful state." He said that banning plastic bags helped protect the environment, reduced clean-up costs and "beautified" the city. He also said that Laredoans quickly adapted to bringing their own bags to stores. "Single use plastic bags have contributed to flooding, mosquitoes, costly clean up for local governments, and disruption of sensitive ecosystems and wildlife," Saenz said. "Laredo's ordinance helped reduce clean up and repair costs to our storm water, sewage and water utilities systems. It also beautified our city and helped wildlife with it." He encouraged residents and all Texans to continue bringing reusable bags, straws, cups and containers to stores. Environmental groups were disappointed by the court's decision. "Plastic pollution is harming wildlife, marring the beauty of our cities, and threatening our health, safety and economy," said Environment Texas executive director Luke Metzger in a statement. "Nothing we use for five minutes should pollute our environment for hundreds of years. We call on major retailers, like HEB and Walmart, to continue observing the ban in these cities and ask the Legislature to remove the preemption statute."<doc-sep>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 The Texas Supreme Court handed a loss to local government on Friday, ruling that a Laredo ban on plastic bags violates state law. The decision imperils other cities' bans across the state. 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. It comes a year after a legislative session marked by challenges to the power of local governments. City ordinances cannot conflict with state law, the court said in a unanimous holding, stating clearly 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. "Both sides of the debate... assert public-policy arguments raising economic, environmental, and uniformity concerns," Chief Justice Nathan Hecht wrote for the court. "We must take statutes as they are written, and the one before us is written quite cleary. Its limitation on local control encompasses the ordinance." READ MORE: The unanimous holding delivers a blow to proponents of local control, and likely means an end to the other Texas cities that impose similar local regulations. The Laredo Merchants Association sued the city back in March 2015, arguing that the city’s ban on single-use bags conflicted with a state law regulating solid waste disposal. But the question stretches back even further than that. In 2014, then-Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a non-binding opinion advising that bag bans are legal if they are not aimed at “solid waste management.” That murky phrase, which appears in the Texas Health and Safety Code, has become the fulcrum for debate on the issue. The Laredo case, which made its way to the Texas Supreme Court in January, has focused on that semantic difference. Lawyers for the city, led by former Texas Supreme Court Justice Dale Wainwright, argued that the bags are not garbage and are therefore are not covered by the relevant state law. Lawyers on the other side, who have been joined by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, argue that they are. While arguments have seemed to center on semantics, the court’s decision is likely to have major implications for local control issues across the state. A long list of lawmakers have weighed in on the case, including by filing friend-of-the-court briefs. Twenty Republican state lawmakers filed a brief against the ban in an earlier appeal of the case. And state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Laredo Democrat, told the Texas Supreme Court she supports the city’s ban.<doc-sep>The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that a plastic bag ban in Laredo goes against state law. So, what does that mean for Austin's bag ban? AUSTIN -- After the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that a plastic bag ban in Laredo goes against state law, many are wondering what this means for Austin's ban on plastic bags. A city spokesman told KVUE their lawyers will look at the ruling and determine how this could affect the single use bag ban in Austin. Here’s a statement from the city spokesman: The City Law Department is reviewing this decision to determine how it might impact Austin’s regulations. The City’s single-use bag ordinance has been in place since 2012 and has served as a model for engaging stakeholders to develop effective local legislation. RELATED: Mayor Pro Tem Kathie Tovo told KVUE she believes Austinites will continue to bring their own bags, no matter what happens to the local ban. "We've had our ban in place since 2012, and so you know customers are used to bringing their own tote bags to the store. And stores are used to not supplying free bags, and so I think that culture shift here in the City of Austin has already happened, and it’s for the good. I talk to people who continue to remark on what a difference it's made," said Tovo. She feels the ban has made a positive difference. "I'm still confident that we can hang on to our regulations. I think they're important, I think they're good for the stores, I think they're good for our environment and I think they're good for consumers,” said Tovo. Environment Texas Canvass Manager, Kelly Bartsch also agrees there are positive benefits to the ban. "We're calling on retailers to do the right thing and stick to providing reusable options for their consumers," said Bartsch. But District 8 Council Member Ellen Troxclair disagrees with the ban. Here's her statement: This is yet another example of government micro-managing our lives with detrimental unintended consequences. A City of Austin report cited that the bag ban led to an increase in reusable plastic bags in the recycling stream, higher cost to consumers, and unforeseen expenses to retailers. I'm glad to hear of the court's ruling and hope it means that we will have one less regulation in Austin soon as well. The Texas Public Policy Foundation also said they are satisfied with the ruling and hopes change will occur.<doc-sep>The plastic bag bans helped reduce litter, protected wildlife and cattle and made stormwater management easier, environmental advocates say. Are you a Texan who hates having to take reusable shopping bags on your grocery run? Rejoice, for your time has come. After a new Texas Supreme Court ruling, your store could soon be stocked with all the plastic bags your heart desires. Want to double-bag that lollipop? Go for it! Hell, triple bag it. In the last decade, at least 11 Texas cities — including Fort Stockton, Austin and Brownsville — have enacted laws banning single-use plastic bags at retail stores. The Laredo Merchants Association challenged Laredo’s ordinance in 2015, arguing that its ban was out of line with state law. On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the trade group, striking down plastic bag bans across the state. The ruling is the latest volley in state leaders’ escalating war on local control. When Denton passed an ordinance to ban fracking in 2014, the Legislature stepped in, banning all bans on fracking to avoid what Governor Greg Abbott called a “patchwork of local regulations.” When Austin voted for stronger background checks for rideshare companies in 2016, the Legislature once again passed a statewide law that effectively voided part of the city’s ordinance and pre-empted other cities from following suit. The justices seemed reticent to frame Friday’s ruling as another vote against allowing cities to set their own policy. “The roving, roiling debate over local control of public affairs has not, with increased age, lost any of its vigor,” the ruling stated, but the “judges have no dog in this fight.” “City ordinances cannot conflict with state law,” the justices wrote. “The wisdom or expediency of the law is the Legislature’s prerogative, not ours. We must take statutes as they are written, and the one before us is written quite clearly. Its limitation on local control encompasses the ordinance.” According to the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act, local governments may not restrict or prohibit “the sale or use of a container or package.” The Laredo Merchants Association and other opponents of the local bans argued that the city’s ordinance violated this state law. Ultimately, the argument boiled down to whether a plastic bag can be considered a “container or package.” Attorneys with the city of Laredo argued that the law applied only to waste, not in the case of prohibiting bags before they become trash. “This is a huge victory for deadly pollution in our state.” The ruling puts the decision to provide plastic bags squarely on retailers. Environmental groups are calling on major stores such as H-E-B, Target and Walmart to continue operating without bags at locations where the local bans were enacted. A spokesperson for H-E-B, which operates 340 stores in Texas and Mexico, did not immediately return a request for comment. In response to a question on Twitter, the company wrote, “We will thoughtfully evaluate the issue to ensure we’re making the best decisions for our customers and the communities we serve.” A broad coalition of groups — including ranchers, cotton farmers and environmental advocates — came together to support the cities’ bag bans, arguing that plastic bags are a threat to the environment and bad for business. The Texas Cotton Ginners’ Association supported the ban because plastic bags can cause costly damage to equipment and reduce the quality of the crop. Plastic bags pose a threat to wildlife and cattle, and also clog drains. Austin’s Solid Waste Management Department estimated that the city spends $330,000 to $805,000 annually to clean up litter and pay for infrastructure maintenance expenses caused by plastic bags. “The only people that benefit from this [ruling] are the [Texas] Chemical Council and the petrochemical industry that make billions off destroying our land and water,” said Andrew Dobbs, legislative director at Texas Campaign for the Environment. “This is a huge victory for deadly pollution in our state.” Anti-regulation advocates applauded the decision. Rob Henneke of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an influential conservative think tank in Austin, said the ruling had “everything to do with reining in lawless city governments” and “reaffirms the ancient principle that City’s [sic] may not pursue their policy goals by any means necessary.” Attorney General Ken Paxton said the ruling “sends the unambiguous message to all local jurisdictions in Texas that they do not get to simply ignore laws they don’t agree with.” Dobbs urged retailers not to return bags to their stores. “Retailers have the power to keep this benefit to our environment going, to decline to bring back these useless, dangerous products that cost them money,” he said. His group also plans to push for legislation that would give more control to local governments.<doc-sep>
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. "Both sides of the debate ... assert public-policy arguments raising economic, environmental, and uniformity concerns," Chief Justice Nathan Hecht wrote for the court. "We must take statutes as they are written, and the one before us is written quite clearly. Its limitation on local control encompasses the ordinance." The Laredo Merchants Association sued the city back in March 2015, arguing that the city’s ban on single-use bags conflicted with a state law regulating solid waste disposal. But the question stretches back even farther than that. In 2014, then-Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a nonbinding opinion advising that bag bans are legal if they are not aimed at “solid waste management.” That murky phrase, which appears in the Texas Health and Safety Code, has become the fulcrum for debate on the issue. The Laredo case, which made its way to the Texas Supreme Court in January, has focused on that semantic difference. Lawyers for the city, led by former Texas Supreme Court Justice Dale Wainwright, argued that the bags are not garbage and are therefore are not covered by the relevant state law. Lawyers on the other side, who have been joined by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, argue that they are. While arguments have seemed to center on semantics, the court’s decision is likely to have major implications for local control issues across the state. It’s a loss for local governments, said Bennett Sandlin, executive director of the Texas Municipal League. “Plastic bags are the perfect case for why different geographies need different sets of rules,” Sandlin said. “This is a sad day.” A long list of lawmakers have weighed in on the case, including by filing friend of the court briefs. Twenty Republican state lawmakers filed a brief against the ban in an earlier appeal of the case. And state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Laredo Democrat, told the Texas Supreme Court she supports the city’s ban. In 2017, state Sen. Bob Hall filed a bill that would have prevented Texas cities from enforcing bag bans. Now that the court has ruled, the issue is likely to become one for legislators to take up. Justice Eva Guzman urged lawmakers to do just that in a concurring opinion Friday. “The legislative branch, not the judiciary, bears the unenviable task of making complicated policy decisions that balance the benefits of uniform regulation and the myriad burdens (financial or otherwise) that may be imposed on taxpayers, businesses, and the environment,” Guzman wrote. She added, “I urge the Legislature to take direct ameliorative action. ... Standing idle in the face of an ongoing assault on our delicate ecosystem will not forestall a day of environmental reckoning—it will invite one.” Kelly Harragan, who wrote a brief on behalf of the Turtle Island Restoration Network, said the court may revoke cities’ bans, but businesses and consumers still have the power to aid the environment. “Customers still have a choice. Customers can still bring their own bags and should still bring their own bag — once you’re in the habit of doing it, there’s no extra burden,” she said. “Companies can also decide that they still don’t want to offer single-use bags.” Environmentalists urged stores to do just that. "Plastic pollution is harming wildlife, marring the beauty of our cities, and threatening our health, safety and economy.