After losing arguments in a Dallas district court and a state appeals court, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took his challenge of the State Fair of Texas's gun policy to the state supreme court on Wednesday. Late Thursday night, the Supreme Court of Texas declined Paxton's petition, allowing the State Fair to move forward with enforcing its ban on firearms.
Judge James Blacklock responded to the petition by saying, "The State’s presentation to this Court takes no
position on whether the State Fair of Texas, a private entity, has the legal authority to exclude patrons carrying handguns from the Fair."
Justice Blacklock went on to say, "This Court cannot possibly order the State Fair to allow handguns to be carried at this year’s Fair when the party seeking that relief does not even argue that Texas law obligates the Fair to do so."
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Paxton filed a petition with the Texas Supreme Court to prevent the city of Dallas from assisting the State Fair of Texas in enforcing their ban on firearms at Fair Park.
In early August, the State Fair of Texas announced that it would screen for weapons at the gate and that only active or retired law enforcement officers would be allowed to carry weapons into the fairgrounds.
The attorney general argued the fair's policy unlawfully prohibits licensed gun owners from carrying their weapons in places owned or leased by governmental entities unless otherwise prohibited by law.
The city of Dallas owns Fair Park and leases much of the fairgrounds to the State Fair of Texas each year.
In the city's response to the appeals court earlier this week, interim Dallas City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said the State Fair was a ticketed, private event and that the fair had exclusive control over some of Fair Park during its 24-day run. A board of directors runs the State Fair with no city oversight or approval, and the State Fair, as a private event, has exclusive authority to decide who it will admit. Tolbert said the city did not take a position on the correctness of the fair's gun policy and said they had received no complaints from citizens about the fair's policy.
The appeals court ruled Tuesday that there was not enough evidence showing that the State Fair or the city of Dallas would break any laws with the policy on firearms, and Paxton's motion for a temporary injunction pending the appeal was denied.
“The City of Dallas and the State Fair of Texas cannot nullify state law by banning firearms. And a government entity cannot contract away our rights by offloading this policy to a private entity. Texans who are licensed to carry have a right to defend themselves, and I will fight every step of the way to protect it,” Paxton said in a statement Wednesday.
Amid the legal battle to get the fair to rescind their policy, Paxton pulled a 2016 opinion in which he supported a nonprofit's right to ban firearms on government-owned land. During the appeal, Paxton said the opinion was pulled because handgun laws had changed and that the opinion was now outdated and inapplicable.
The fair is set to open its gates on Friday, so a decision by the Texas Supreme Court could come sometime Thursday.
The State Fair of Texas runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 20.
