Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sent a notice of supplemental authority to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, detailing how recent legal victories support Texas's defense of S.B.4.
In a recent victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in DeVillier v. Texas, the Supreme Court sided with Texas, directing plaintiffs to seek redress through existing state law rather than directly under the U.S. Constitution. The Court emphasized that constitutional rights do not typically come with a built-in cause of action, but are generally invoked defensively in the absence of an independent cause of action by Congress or state law. Paxton noted, "Like many cases before it, DeVillier rebuts the district court’s theory that the federal government can offensively enforce another constitutional provision—here, the Supremacy Clause—absent a statutory cause of action enacted by Congress."
Furthermore, Paxton highlighted the U.S. Supreme Court's order in Labrador v. Poe, where the Court stayed a pre-enforcement, facial injunction of an Idaho law similar to the injunction against S.B.4 in Texas. The Court's action raised doubts about the legality of such sweeping statewide injunctions, as emphasized by Paxton's notice to the Fifth Circuit.
The notice underscores the significance of these legal developments in supporting Texas's defense of S.B.4 against the challenge brought by the United States.