County commissioners weigh adding a lobbying ban and an anti-Sharia resolution to their 2027 legislative wish list

Collin County commissioners are set to consider adding two politically charged positions to the county's wish list for the 2027 Texas Legislature: a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying by local governments and a resolution denouncing Sharia law.

Both are drafted as court orders attached to the "90th Legislative Agenda" item on the Commissioners Court agenda for Monday, Nov. 9. The court meets at 1:30 p.m. on the fourth floor of the Jack Hatchell Administration Building, 2300 Bloomdale Road in McKinney.

The same item carries resolutions the court adopted earlier this year, including one asking lawmakers to let counties regulate noise from data centers and other industrial sites in unincorporated areas, and another backing an increase in the statewide wireless 9-1-1 fee to pay for next-generation emergency systems.

Taxpayer-funded lobbying

The one-page draft says taxpayers should not have to pay for lobbying that works against their interests, and notes the ban has been a Republican Party of Texas legislative priority since 2018. It says any law prohibiting the practice should apply equally to every political subdivision.

The idea has drawn opposition from local officials before. When the Texas Senate advanced a similar bill during a 2025 special session, the Texas Municipal League's president wrote that it would keep local officials from effectively advocating for their residents, and critics argued small and distant communities would lose their voice in Austin, the Texas Tribune reported.

Supporters, including the bill's author, Sen. Mayes Middleton, said residents should not have to fund lobbyists who oppose them, the Tribune reported.

Sharia law

The four-page Sharia draft would have the court "denounce Sharia law in all forms" and oppose any implementation of it in the United States, and it urges the Legislature to adopt those objectives. Its preamble describes Sharia as a political and legal system incompatible with the Constitution and lists examples it attributes to Sharia, including the treatment of women and penalties for apostasy and blasphemy.

It also cites an Aug. 26 statement by President Donald Trump. The draft says the country is threatened not by a religion but by a body of law it says claims authority over non-Muslims.

Muslim Texans and scholars have pushed back on that view. State Rep. Salman Bhojani, D-Euless, the first Muslim elected to the Texas Legislature, told the Texas Tribune in August that Sharia "is a personal moral code, and not something that I can impose on anybody else."

UCLA law professor Khaled Abou el Fadl told the Tribune that U.S. courts already cannot apply foreign law that conflicts with public policy. Republican state Rep. Brent Money, who formed a Sharia Free Texas Caucus in March, said in a statement to the paper that personal religious practice is protected but a foreign legal system that conflicts with Texas law is not.

The drafts are written as already adopted "by a majority of the court members," with signature lines for County Judge Chris Hill and all four commissioners. The court has not voted on either. The Legislature convenes in January.

Sources

eagenda.collincountytx.gov

eagenda.collincountytx.gov

eagenda.collincountytx.gov

eagenda.collincountytx.gov

The Texas Tribune

The Texas Tribune