Group sues Texas over law banning state business with firms “boycotting” fossil fuels

A progressive business group sued Texas Thursday over a 2021 law that restricts state investments in companies that, according to the state, “boycott” the fossil fuel industry. The lawsuit, which was filed by the American Sustainable Business Coalition against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Comptroller Glenn Hegar, alleges that the law constitutes viewpoint discrimination and denies companies due process, in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The group asked a federal judge in Austin to permanently block the state from enforcing the law. Hegar, the comptroller, called the lawsuit an “absurd” attempt to “force the state of Texas and Texas taxpayers to invest their own money in a manner inconsistent with their values and detrimental to their own economic well-being.”