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ICYMI: Dallas Morning News: 'SB4 Lawsuit Filed to Block Texas’ New Sanctuary Cities Ban From Taking Effect'

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Today, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas sued the state of Texas, in an SB4 lawsuit designed to block the law from taking effect this year.

The Dallas Morning News’ James Barragan detailed the plaintiffs’ argument: “In their motion, attorneys said the law, previously known as Senate Bill 4, should be blocked because it preempts federal immigration law, is “unconstitutionally vague” and violates the First, Fourth and 10th Amendments.”

Today’s lawsuit is the latest to be filed against SB4, joining lawsuits from El Paso County, and the cities of Austin, San Antonio and El Cenizo. Pressure from local groups has been growing in Dallas and Houston, encouraging their cities’ leaders to join the suit against the discriminatory and racist law.

“Suit Filed to Block Texas’ New Sanctuary Cities Ban From Taking Effect” is excerpted below and available online here.

The plaintiffs’ request to block the law will depend on whether the court determines they are likely to succeed in the lawsuit. The court will also take into consideration whether allowing the law to go into effect would cause “irreparable harm” to the plaintiffs or if blocking the law would cause more harm to the state. Its final consideration will be whether blocking the law would harm the public interest.

The legal maneuver is part of a recent tit-for-tat between opponents of the sanctuary cities ban and state leaders working to defend it. The state struck first in May, filing suit against Austin city officials a day after the law was signed in what was largely seen as a pre-emptive move to prevent legal challenges against the ban from piling up.

[…]

Last week, the state moved to consolidate several of the legal challenges to the ban by combining them all into the same lawsuit and moving them away from a federal district court in San Antonio, which is seen as a more favorable venue to opponents of the law, and toward Austin, where the state’s original suit was filed.