AUSTIN – Attorney General Paxton has filed an amicus letter brief in the Texas Supreme Court to stop an unlawful charter amendment from being placed on the ballots of San Antonio, Texas voters in the upcoming May 2023 municipal general election. The letter brief was filed in support of the Texas Alliance for Life’s challenge to the charter amendment, which contains numerous left-wing policy initiatives.

To ensure that charter amendments are clear and that voters can make their voices heard, Texas state law requires charter amendments to include only one subject. But San Antonio’s proposed charter amendment does not accord with this long-standing legal requirement, as it contains a multitude of different topics.

Even the San Antonio City Attorney has acknowledged that the proposed amendment presents at least six subjects, among them changes to policies regarding abortion, marijuana, no-knock warrants, chokeholds, the creation of a new municipal government position, and a reduction in criminal penalties for numerous state-law crimes.

By: Iris Dimmick

Meanwhile, the proposed charter amendment is facing a legal challenge at the Texas Supreme Court from the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life Inc.

The group has requested that the city reject the proposed ballot language and instead require a vote on each provision individually. The petition is pending, but the court issued an order Thursday morning that requires both parties to provide a status report to the court next week outlining the ballot language.

Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office urged the court to side with opponents. Solicitor General Judd Stone wrote Wednesday in a letter to the court that the Justice Charter “flagrantly violates” a state law prohibiting multi-subject charter amendments.

By: Michael Karlis

This week, anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life filed a petition with the court arguing that the Justice Charter Initiative is illegal because it includes more than one subject. Solicitor General Judd Stone reiterated these sentiments in a letter submitted to the state’s high court, arguing that the proposal “flagrantly violates” state law, according to the San Antonio Report.

Stone urged the court to grant a petition filed by the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life Inc. (TAL) requesting that the city reject the proposed ballot language, and instead require a vote on each provision individually.
“While the substance of this proposed charter amendment conflicts with multiple substantive provisions of state law, this mandamus proceeding concerns a procedural problem: the charter amendment plainly violates Texas law’s longstanding prohibition on municipal charter amendments that ‘contain more than one subject,’” Stone wrote.

By: Molly Smith

Austin-based Texas Alliance for Life, along with San Antonio resident Maria Theresa Ramirez Morris, filed an emergency writ of mandamus petition Thursday asking the court to compel the city clerk and council to break up the charter amendment into separate ballot measures.

The anti-abortion group bypassed the San Antonio-based Fourth Court of Appeals — which counts just one Republican among its seven justices — and went directly to the all Republican Supreme Court.

On ExpressNews.com: Abortion opponents call ‘anarchy’ as San Antonio City Council approves resolution in favor of access