The Fair’s ban on guns will stand, at least for now.
Howdy, folks
A Dallas County district judge is leaving the State Fair of Texas gun ban in effect after an injunction hearing Thursday.
Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Dallas and the fair last month because the fair is now banning guns from Fair Park — excluding active and qualified retired peace officers. The fair previously allowed concealed carry.
Attorneys for the State Fair, the city of Dallas and the state made their cases in front of 298th District Judge Emily Tobolowsky Thursday. The judge’s ruling will give the losing party only days to appeal, and the fact that the State Fair is fast approaching will require the courts to move quickly.
Texas law forbids state agencies and political subdivisions — such as Dallas — from banning licensed handgun owners from carrying guns on government owned or leased property. The State Fair says it has significant control over Fair Park as part of its longstanding lease agreement with Dallas for the annual event.
State Fair attorneys successfully argued the gun ban is legal because the organization operates independently as a private nonprofit, not a government entity.
“The State Fair of Texas is not an agent of the city of Dallas,” said Jim Harris, attorney for the State Fair. “The State Fair of Texas has not been delegated any governmental powers or authority by the city of Dallas.”
Paxton’s office, meanwhile, argued that because of the agreement the fair is acting under the authority of Dallas. Therefore, the decision to ban guns from the fair is the city’s decision and that makes the ban illegal, said Ernest Garcia, chief of the administrative law division of the attorney general’s office.
“This case is about public policy and its application to public property,” Garcia said. “This is not a case about private property rights or interests.”
[…]
Jeff Tillotson, an outside attorney for the city of Dallas, said the city had no role in the fair’s decision to ban firearms from Fair Park, so the city is not liable. He argued Paxton’s lawsuit should be thrown out altogether because, among other things, the concerned citizens Dubeau mentioned didn’t make their complaints first to the city directly as required by law.
State Fair president Mitchell Glieber testified the city has no control over the State Fair’s decision making. He said the fair made the decision to ban guns in February and informed the Dallas Police Department of its decision in May.
See here and here for some background. The Statesman adds on.
Nine days before Thursday’s hearing, Paxton withdrew a legal opinion from 2016 in which he stated that nonprofit entities have the right to ban firearms on public land that they are leasing from a city. Two Republican lawmakers had requested a new analysis on a similar subject to the opinion, KP-0108, after the lawsuit was filed.
Attorneys for the city of Dallas criticized the move as “revealing” in court filings, adding that it did not change the underlying legal issues.
“Recognizing that the Attorney General’s position since 2016 has firmly landed in support of the City’s posture here, the Attorney General withdrew KP-0108—on which municipalities and nonprofits have relied on for years—with the blatant intent of changing course to obtain a different outcome here,” attorneys for Dallas-based firm Tillotson, Johnson and Patton wrote in a response brief on the city’s behalf. “Doing so only confirms that the opinion expressed therein was correct and Plaintiffs’ claims in this case are necessarily inapposite to and unsupportable by that opinion.”
[…]
Paxton’s office will likely seek to overturn Tobolowsky’s order in the new 15th Court of Appeals, which was authorized when Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 1045 in 2023. The court, which began hearing cases Sept. 1, now has exclusive statewide jurisdiction over intermediate appellate disputes over state actions and legislative constitutionality.
Paxton’s office and the State Fair of Texas did not immediately respond to the American-Statesman’s requests for comment. Karissa Condoianis, the State Fair of Texas’ senior vice president for public relations, previously told the Statesman that the fair was standing by its gun ban.
“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,” Condoianis wrote in an email statement Aug. 30.
The Statesman also reached out to the city of Dallas, which declined to comment on pending litigation.
However, Jeff Tillotson, counsel for Dallas, said, “We thank the Court for its careful consideration of this matter.”
The fair will take place between Sept. 27 and Oct. 20.
I suppose it’s now a question of how fast Paxton can file that appeal, assuming he does, and how fast that court can act. Longer term, of course, the Lege can and almost certainly will pass a law to remove this exception. But for now, maybe this year the State Fair will get to operate as it prefers. WFAA, the Dallas Observer, and the Trib have more.