As expected, after hearing arguments from the Texas Attorney General’s Office, and The Harris County Attorney’s Office, the Democrat judge in the 165th District Court chose to uphold 'Uplift Harris', and denied Ken Paxton’s request to temporarily block the county from disbursing funds to families participating in the County’s guaranteed basic income pilot program.
AG Ken Paxton is now expected to appeal directly to the Texas Supreme Court, making it a likely short-lived victory for Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, and the local Democrats.
"We'll see what the court says at that point" said Precinct 3 Commissioner, Tom Ramsey, "I'm still hopeful that they will see this $20.5 million dollar give-away program identified as something that we really don't need to do."
Attorney General Ken Paxton also argued that the selection criteria for Uplift Harris was not “rational” under the Texas Constitution’s equal protection clause because the County used a lottery system to determine which qualified applicants to select. Harris County responded that each applicant had to meet income and geographic restrictions, all of which just so happened to be in Democrat districts.
"I was on the stand for roughly an hour and :20 minutes" Ramsey told KTRH, "And I tried to describe to them that just giving $500 a month with no restrictions, that's really bad policy."
The state is expected to appeal in short order and request that the Texas Supreme Court step in and block the program during the pendency of the case. The Supreme Court will be asked to make that decision as soon as possible, given that the county is scheduled to disburse Uplift Harris funds on April 24.
This is a developing story.