Texas Governor Greg Abbott swears in newly appointed judges to the Texas business courts at an official ceremony at Texas A&M University School of Law in Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday, September 19, 2024. Governor Abbott swore in a total of ten justices, two in each Business Court divisions in San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and Houston.
While this appeal may be in the new court’s jurisdiction, it is not the type of case it was meant to handle. Paxton’s decision to bring this politically charged and legally questionable case to this new court undermines its intended purpose and interferes with a successful start to its operations.The creation of the Texas business court system was intended to help build a pro-business legal environment for corporations operating in Texas.
What’s more, Paxton’s lawsuit directly conflicts with a basic principle of Texas property and contract law. The relevant statute allows an owner of property to ban firearms from that property. As the tenant of the city of Dallas, the State Fair owns a “leasehold” property interest that brings it within the scope of that statute. Paxton’s position is that state laws about the right to carry firearms in public places override the State Fair’s contract rights.
It is no answer that the 15th Court has jurisdiction that extends beyond business court cases. The problem in the State Fair case arises because of tension between two statutes enacted by the Legislature — one that protects individuals’ right to carry firearms in public places, and another that protects the rights of private property owners to control what happens on their property.
The solution to that problem also lies with the Legislature, which has revised Texas firearms laws in almost every legislative session for at least a decade. Anything that the courts do this year is, at best, a stopgap until the Legislature makes a definitive judgment on this matter in 2025. There’s nothing so pressing about this issue that compels it to become the first high profile case to be addressed by the Fifteenth 15th Court.