The Texas Supreme Court denied Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to overturn the State Fair’s gun ban. The court’s decision came just the night before the fair opened. Justice Jimmy Blacklock, in an opinion issued on Thursday, mentioned that despite the lawsuit against the ban, Paxton’s office did not take a stance on whether the State Fair, as a private nonprofit organization, has the legal right to exclude individuals carrying handguns from the fair.
Throughout the course of Paxton’s legal battle against the fair and the city of Dallas, he argued that Dallas officials were essentially using the State Fair organization to enforce the gun ban at the city-owned Fair Park, which he deemed illegal. However, the State Fair of Texas is now permitted to prohibit fairgoers from bringing firearms into Fair Park, with the exception of active and qualified retired peace officers who can show their credentials at fair entrances.
Paxton’s appeal to the Supreme Court of Texas was his third attempt to overturn the ban after both a trial court and a lower appeals court had previously rejected his requests to block it. A Dallas County district judge had ruled in favor of the fair’s new firearm policy during an injunction hearing the previous week. Paxton quickly appealed this decision to the state’s 15th Court of Appeals, but his emergency appeal was turned down without an opinion by judges appointed by Governor Greg Abbott.
The gun ban was implemented this year in response to a shooting incident at last year’s fair that resulted in injuries to three individuals. The fair expressed appreciation to the courts for their swift rulings and stated their commitment to providing a safe environment for the millions of fairgoers, staff, vendors, and volunteers.
The State Fair leases Fair Park from Dallas to host its annual event, and Texas law prohibits government agencies from prohibiting licensed handgun owners from government-owned or leased property. In his petition to the Supreme Court, Paxton argued that the city was violating the law by allowing the Dallas Police Department to enforce the ban, but this argument did not convince the courts to lift the ban.
The Texas Supreme Court, in line with the lower courts, concluded that the city did not have control over the fair’s decision to ban guns. They emphasized that their role is to determine if Texas law permits the State Fair to make such decisions, rather than assessing the wisdom of the decision itself. Blacklock’s opinion highlighted that Paxton’s past statements were used against him, pointing out that he had previously opined that local governments are not accountable when private businesses ban guns on government-owned property.
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