(The Center Square) – Dallas officials have been warned that if they don’t repeal or amend 133 ordinances violating state law, they will be sued.

The warning comes after Texas’ Third Circuit Court of Appeals appears to have chastised Democratic leaders of El Paso, Houston and San Antonio in a lawsuit the court just threw out, The Center Square reported.

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In 2023, the Texas legislature passed with bipartisan support the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, HB 2127, filed by now House Speaker Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, “to provide consistency and predictability by preempting local regulation of matters regulated by the state” in several regulatory codes. It preempts, and makes unenforceable city ordinances that duplicate and-or add to state regulations. Dubbed the “Death Star” bill by some news outlets and Democrats, Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law and it became effective Sept. 1, 2023.

The appellate court justices said Democratic officials in San Antonio and El Paso failed “to identify a single local law to which the Act’s application would be unconstitutional. The closest Houston comes to doing so is in alleging that the Act might preempt its pay-or-play insurance program.”

They also said a lower court’s decision amounted to an advisory opinion based on a hypothetical scenario, saying “a court does not strike down a law as unconstitutional based on a hypothetical situation.’”

After the appellate court ruling, the Texas Public Policy Foundation notified the Dallas City Attorney on behalf of three Dallas residents that city officials had injured them by enforcing 133 ordinances that are preempted by state law, in violation of the Texas Constitution.

TPPF notes that the 133 ordinances were identified by Tennell Atkins, the city’s chairman of Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Affairs, in a memo to state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas.

The eight-page memo cites each ordinance and its regulatory scope that would be preempted if the law went into effect. The ordinances cover a range of issues including minimum wage, water conservation, regulation of sexually-oriented businesses, insurance requirements for ambulances and tow services, ethics and personnel rules, codes related to breeding permits, boarding home facilities, alarm system requirements, among many others.

“Because HB 2127 is now the law, these ordinances are preempted by the City’s own admission. Yet the city continues to enforce them,” TPPF said.

“The City of Dallas spends public funds to investigate, enforce, and monitor compliance with the listed ordinances,” the letter states. “Because these ordinances are preempted, these efforts and expenditures are illegal under the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act and the Texas Constitution. Accordingly, the City’s expenditures related to these illegal ordinances have injured and continue to injure these taxpayer citizens of Dallas.”

“All Texans deserve the freedom to live and work without being micromanaged by their city government,” TPPF senior attorney Matthew Chiarizio said. “The Texas Regulatory Consistency Act was passed to stop exactly this kind of local overreach – and TPPF stands ready to defend Texans’ liberty when cities like Dallas refuse to follow the law.”

“Wasteful and illegal spending like what is in these ordinances flushes millions of dollars of Dallas taxpayers’ money down the drain, leading to higher property taxes,” TPPF attorney Nathan Seltzer added. “Dallas taxpayers are simply demanding accountability from their government.”

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A city spokesperson said it cannot comment “due to pending notice of claims.”

If El Paso, San Antonio and Houston officials do not repeal or amend ordinances in violation of state law they are also likely to receive similar notices and legal challenges, as are local officials statewide.