Federal Court extends temporary restraining order against City of Brackettville

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.

United States District Court Judge Alia Moses extended a previous state district court issued temporary restraining order on April 29, 2015 against the City of Brackettville and its Mayor Andres Rodriguez enjoining them from enforcing the disputed Amendment to the City’s Animal Control Ordinance approved by the City Council on December 9, 2014, in favor of Brackettville Animal Lovers Association and its members until Tuesday, May 12, 2015.

On April 20, 2015, the Brackettville Animal Lovers Association, a non-profit Texas corporation composed of animal, livestock, and real property owners in Brackettville, Texas, filed a lawsuit in the 63rd Judicial District Court in Kinney County, Texas against the City of Brackettville and Mayor Andres Rodriguez challenging the legality and constitutionality of the controversial Amendment to the Animal Control Ordinance as violating the City’s Ordinance passage requirements, being overbroad and vague, denying them due process and equal protection, and establishing two separate and distinct boundary property areas within the city limits of Brackettville allowing one area to have livestock while another area prohibited from having livestock.

63rd District Court Judge Henry Fernandez issued a temporary restraining order on April 21, 2015 until April 29, 2015 but the City of Brackettville and Mayor Andres Rodriguez removed the case to U.S. District Court in Del Rio, Texas on April 29, 2015 alleging federal and constitutional claims made by Plaintiff.

The temporary restraining order enjoins the City of Brackettville and Mayor Andres Rodriguez to continue enforcing the Amendment to the Animal Conntrol Ordinance of December 9, 2014, cease and desist all citations or cases issued as a result of an alleged violation of the Animal Control Ordinance in the Brackettville Municipal Court, prohibit Defendants and its City Council members, City Administrator, Supervisors, Officers, Designees, Employees, Representatives, and Agents from intimidating, harassing, threatening, stalking, and/or retaliating against the Brackettville Animal Lovers Association and any of its invdividual members, and from destroying, amending, changing, creating, mutilating, correcting, tampering with, and disappearance of any public documents regarding the passage of the Amendment to the Animal Control Ordinance on December 9, 2014, until the preliminary injunction hearing on May 12, 2015 before U.S. District Judge Alia Moses.

Plaintiff alleges that its members have been issued citations for alleged criminal misdemeanor violations with a fine up to $500 per violation, damages, a loss of their use and enjoyment of their real property, animals, and livestock, reasonable attorney’s fees, court costs, and expenses.

The City of Brackettville has stopped enforcing its Animal Control Ordinance for the moment until further order from the U.S. District Court in Del Rio, Texas.