Judge Lora Livingston issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the Department of State Health Services’ (DSHS) smokable hemp ban in the case of Crown Distributing vs Texas DSHS.
Susan Hays, one of the attorney’s involved on the plaintiff’s side of the case had this to say, “The court’s TRO will prevent enforcement of Rule 300.104, so businesses can continue to manufacture, process, distribute and sell at retail consumable hemp products for smoking until a court rules otherwise. Hemp has been and is legal in Texas, and Texas regulations should treat it that way.”
The TRO maintains that DSHS will continue to treat the smokable hemp in the same fashion as it did before the new rules went into effect. Both sides were given the opportunity to make their case to the judge on why a TRO should or should not be in place. This was to include the manufacture and retail bans. The plaintiffs, led by Crown Distributing, argued that the ban would do harm to Texas businesses. The retail ban was also declared to be done in a fashion that requires DSHS to have the legal authority to do so but did not have said authority from HB1325. The plaintiff’s continued, stating that such a ban would cause harm in the form of having to close retail businesses along with manufacturers having to move their sites to other states like Oklahoma.
DSHS argued that the plaintiffs were not being upfront with their case as they proposed it would not cause harm to the plaintiffs. DSHS argued that since hemp was not previously legal to create or distribute in the state of Texas, that the plaintiffs were being unclear on the harm that would actually be done.
The judge offered a two-week extension of the pre-rules status of smokable hemp being legal for retail, which would be reviewed at the next hearing. DSHS was not in favor of this as they stated that media outlets would not represent the situation on the judge’s orders correctly.
The court will convene again on September 2, 2020, to review the TRO. Understand that this date can change at any time. The case is being held in the 261st District Court in Travis County. The case is also being presided over by Judge Lora Livingston who is one of the more senior district judges in Travis county.