Supreme Court of Texas hears challenge to College Station regulation of nonresident property

At oral argument before the Supreme Court of Texas in No. 23-0767, petitioners Shana Elliott and Lawrence Kalki argued that the City of College Station's regulation of properties in its extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) violates Article 1, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution because nonresident landowners lack a democratic check on the municipal officials who regulate their property.

The issue matters because it asks whether municipal regulation of landowners who do not live inside city limits can survive the state's republican-form-of-government pledge and whether more recent legislation, Senate Bill 2038 (SB 2038), which creates a withdrawal mechanism from an ETJ, renders the dispute moot. Petitioners say they must seek permission from a city in which they cannot vote; the city argues procedural and jurisdictional defects, and counsel for both sides told justices the question could hinge on standing, mootness and the political-question doctrine.

Petitioners' lead counsel argued that the constitutional question goes to subject-matter jurisdiction and therefore cannot be avoided. "They exercise no democratic check over the individuals who regulate their property," counsel said, arguing that while the county, the state or the Texas Legislature are bodies petitioners could check democratically, they have no vote over College Station officials. Counsel noted that, "as we sit here today, my clients…