A Dallas County district judge on Friday rejected Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to block Dallas temporarily from enforcing a ban on police arresting or citing people solely accused of low-level marijuana possession.
Judge Dale Tillery told state attorneys in court he was denying Paxton’s request for a temporary injunction because they couldn’t prove the Dallas City Council, city manager and interim police chief overstepped their authority by implementing a recent voter-approved charter amendment decriminalizing possession of less than four ounces of marijuana. The state argued Dallas is violating state law because recreational marijuana use is still illegal in Texas.
Tillery noted that while state law does say local governing and law enforcement authorities can’t adopt a policy that prevents them from fully enforcing drug laws, it says nothing about what to do when faced with voter-backed and approved propositions.
“The (Texas) Supreme Court says it’s their ministerial duty, and they have to recognize it,” Tillery said, referring to city officials. The judge added the state could continue pursuing the lawsuit challenging how the charter proposition is being applied to trial but disagreed the actions of the city in response to the November election were illegal
Paxton sued Dallas, all 15 members of the Dallas City Council, interim city manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert and interim police chief Michael Igo in November after 66% of voters approved Proposition R. The city charter amendment bars Dallas police from using the smell of marijuana as probable cause for searches and stops them from arresting people or issuing them citations on suspicion of having less than four ounces of marijuana.
Dallas is the largest Texas city to ban arrests for low-level marijuana offenses.
The proposition was backed by Austin-based nonprofit Ground Game Texas, which gained enough signatures to get it onto the election ballot last November. The group, which has led similar efforts around Texas, said the charter change was necessary to address the disproportionate number of Black people arrested for the low-level offense and help direct police resources to more serious crimes.
The attorney general contends Proposition R is unconstitutional and Dallas doesn’t have the legal authority to make officers enforce it.
“We don’t challenge the fact that the Dallas Police Department and the city of Dallas, like every municipality, has finite resources and need to balance and prioritize those resources,” said Zachary Rhines, a lawyer in the state attorney general’s office Friday. “What we are saying is that a blanket policy saying you are not going to do this absent one or two circumstances, pulling discretion away from police officers … that case-by-case discretion is essentially wrong.”
Elizabeth Chandler, a Dallas assistant city attorney, told Tillery the city is still enforcing drug laws, “just not the way that the state wants them to.”
She argued that granting the state a temporary injunction against Proposition R would infringe on the city’s discretionary action and the will of voters.
Paxton has also filed lawsuits against Austin, Denton and other cities where similar voter-supported mandates on weed have passed. Judges have thus far overturned similar Paxton lawsuits against Austin and San Marcos, but he is appealing both.
Not every city where voters have approved some marijuana decriminalization is siding with election results. City leaders in Lockhart and Bastrop say they won’t uphold decriminalizing up to four ounces of marijuana despite voter approval.
Interim chief of police Michael T. Igo (right) takes the witness box during a hearing of a recent voter-approved ban on police arresting people who have less than four ounces of marijuana on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, at George Allen Court Building in Dallas. (Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)
Igo testified in court on Friday that Dallas officers still have the option of arresting people in possession of four ounces or less of marijuana if it’s tied to a high-priority drug investigation, violent felony, or if weed is the substance used by an intoxicated driver.
He said he didn’t know of any officer who had been disciplined for violating the department’s directive to enforce Proposition R or who had been referred to remedial training related to upholding it.
Igo said officers can still seize small amounts of marijuana from people who are arrested. But once they are released from custody, the weed can be returned with the rest of their property.
