Texas Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Harris County Guaranteed Income Pilot Program
Houston, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court has issued an administrative stay in the Uplift Harris litigation, temporarily blocking Harris County’s guaranteed income pilot program from proceeding until further deliberation by the Court. This decision comes after both a district court judge in Harris County and the 14th Court of Appeals sided with Harris County, denying the state’s request to temporarily block the county from disbursing funds to the 1,900 participants who have already been notified of their selection.
“Today’s decision is disappointing but not surprising given how politicized we’ve seen the Texas Supreme Court become,” said Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee. “We’ve already seen one justice publicly disparage Harris County officials during a speech at a political event and make clear his goal of undermining the County.
It’s unfortunate the court would take such an extraordinary step to block a program that would help people in Harris County—even temporarily. The Court knew that the first payments were scheduled to go out tomorrow. I will keep fighting to protect this program, and I look forward to continuing to argue that Uplift Harris is good legally and morally.”
Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis gave the following statement:
“I am incredibly disappointed in today’s administrative stay. This frivolous lawsuit was a broadside attack on Harris County families struggling to make ends meet by state extremists and a hyper-partisan Texas Supreme Court. Now 1,900 working families who were expecting to have their lives changed have been robbed of a critical hand-up. We will not be deterred. We will continue to fight for those 1,900 families, and every one of the 750k people living under the crushing weight of poverty in Harris County.”
More than 82,000 applications were submitted by the February 2 deadline, and payments for those selected to participate were set to be distributed on April 24. The Texas Supreme Court’s order pauses the program until it can consider the merits of the State’s mandamus petition. The order asks the County to respond to the State’s motion for emergency relief by Monday, April 29, and presumably, the Court will rule shortly thereafter.
About the Harris County Attorney’s Office
Christian D. Menefee serves as the elected, top civil lawyer for Texas’ largest county. The Harris County Attorney’s Office represents the county in all civil matters including lawsuits. Menefee leads an office of 250 attorneys and staff members. He entered office at 32 years old, making him the youngest person and first African American elected as the Harris County Attorney.