Judge blocks new Texas law that would erode cities’ power to enact local rules

State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble halted the law — House Bill 2127, which opponents nicknamed the “Death Star” bill — just days before it was slated to take effect on Friday.

The state is expected to appeal the ruling.

The Republican-backed law aims to stop local governments from enacting a wide range of progressive-leaning policies by barring cities and counties from passing local ordinances that go further than what’s allowed under broad areas of state law.

Local officials balked at the law’s passage earlier this year, blasting it as a massive, vague and possibly unconstitutional power grab by the state that would prevent them from meeting local needs and needlessly disrupted how the state has operated for nearly a century. Houston, later joined by San Antonio and El Paso, sued the state last month alleging that the law conflicts with a portion of the state constitution that allows cities to enact their own laws.