The Texas Supreme Court has upheld the State Fair of Texas's decision to implement a gun ban on its fairgrounds, denying an emergency filing by Attorney General Ken Paxton seeking to overturn the policy, this move arrives just in time for the fair's opening tomorrow.
According to KXAN, the court ruled that its role was not to judge the wisdom of the fair's decision but to determine whether Texas law allowed the State Fair the autonomy to set such a policy—a question the Attorney General's office did not take a solid position on, despite their initiative for the injunction, hence, for now, their answer "must be no." The ruling concludes a series of legal setbacks for Paxton, whose lawsuit maintained that the gun ban violated state law prohibiting most government bodies from barring weapons but the fairgrounds' operation by a private nonprofit offered a counterpoint to Paxton's argument, with fair officials and the city of Dallas highlighting that the fair's policy did not constitute a city decision.
The inception of the dispute ran in the wake of a shooting at last year's fair, which wounded three, prompting officials to declare changes including the controversial gun prohibition, with the fair's spokesperson Karissa Condoianis stating, "As a private, not-for-profit organization leasing Fair Park for our annual State Fair, we believe we have the right to make this decision and maintain that it is the correct decision to protect the safety of our patrons," as KXAN reported. The reinforcement of the gun ban as a safety measure was countered by a group of state lawmakers urging a retraction of the policy, and this move was seen as part of Paxton's broader pattern of scrutinizing decisions from entities with more liberal-leaning governance.
The Supreme Court's decision also serves as the first significant case for the new 15th Court of Appeals, with judges appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, ironically, and the victory for the State Fair might quiet worries regarding the court's inception as a tool for more partisan decisions; the ruling's implications will likely reverberate beyond the fairgrounds as a statement on the autonomy of private organizations in relation to state law on gun possession on government-leased property.
Judicial opinions pointed out the inconsistency in Paxton's stance by referencing his withdrawal of a 2016 opinion that had initially found local governments are not responsible when private businesses ban guns on government property, a flip-flop that went unexplained. "It should go without saying—though perhaps it cannot be said often enough—that a judge’s role in this case is not to decide whether the State Fair made a wise decision," the Supreme Court opinion read, emphasizing their mandate to focus on legal permissions rather than policy wisdom, according to details supplied by Texas Standard.
