AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- The Texas Supreme Court late Friday night granted Attorney General Ken Paxton's petition for an order blocking the City of Austin and Travis County from enforcing local orders that would prohibit restaurants, bars, and other venues from offering dine-in food and beverage services between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. Friday night and Saturday night.
Paxton sought relief from the state's highest civil court after similar challenges were rejected Thursday by a Travis County District Court and the state's Third Court of Appeals.
"Without hearing oral argument, and having considered 'Defendants Travis County and City of Austin's Joint Response in Opposition to Plaintiff's Application for Temporary Injunction,' we conditionally grant the petition for writ of mandamus and direct the court of appeals to issue relief under Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure 29.3, instanter, enjoining enforcement of Travis County's County Judge Order 2020-24 and the Mayor of the City of Austin's Order No. 20201229-24 pending final resolution of the appeal," the court said in an order. "Our writ will issue only if the court of appeals does not comply."
Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Andy Brown issued the orders late Tuesday, to be in effect nightly between Thursday and Saturday for the New Year's holiday weekend.
"We thank the Supreme Court of Texas for upholding the rule of law," Paxton said in a statement following the court's ruling. "Local declarations cannot order needless shutdowns in conflict with the governor's order, and these orders demonstrated blatant contempt for the citizens and businesses of our great state. The Court was right to end these oppressive, illegal city and county declarations and I wish every Texan and Texas business a happy and safe New Year."
Brown issued the following statement following the court's ruling. "I am disappointed by the Texas Supreme Court decision as it limits our ability to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community. I continue to encourage everyone in Travis County to celebrate and eat safely at home until our overall COVID-19 numbers have decreased. I also would ask everyone to consider supporting local restaurants by ordering food for takeout as I did with my family last night."
This is a developing story and will be updated.
