The Texas Hemp Business Council (THBC) legal team filed a formal Motion for Rehearing on June 22 requesting that the newly established 15th Court of Appeals reconsider its recent decision to lift a temporary injunction protecting the industry from state agency rules.
The motion is the latest action in an ongoing legal battle challenging consumable hemp regulations implemented by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Industry advocates emphasize that while this new filing represents a key pushback from business leaders, it does not alter the current legal status of the regulations. The contested DSHS rules will remain fully in effect across the state unless the appellate judges formally grant the rehearing request and rule in favor of the hemp industry.
The primary argument in the motion argues that the rules create significant regulatory inconsistency and operational confusion across the Texas market. According to THBC, DSHS officials have reportedly told multiple industry participants that the state is not currently executing active enforcement on major portions of the challenged rules, including the highly controversial “Total THC” testing standard and dramatically increased licensing fees.
THBC argues that this informal lack of enforcement, paired with the official lifting of the injunction, has created significant confusion for Texas hemp businesses trying to maintain compliance. By petitioning the 15th Court of Appeals to reinstate the temporary injunction while the broader appeal continues to play out, THBC aims to establish regulatory clarity and prevent financial harm to local business owners who face an unpredictable, fragmented enforcement landscape.
The underlying legal dispute centers on updated administrative rules adopted by DSHS, which effectively ban smokable hemp products — such as THCA flower — by switching the state’s compliance tracking metric from a delta-9-only calculation to a “Total THC” standard that accounts for post-heating conversion.
According to THBC, the rules exponentially increase annual operational overhead, raising manufacturer licensing fees from $250 to $10,000 per facility and shifting retailer registration costs from $150 to $5,000 per location.
Although a Travis County district court initially granted a temporary injunction in May to block these rules, the Texas Attorney General appealed the decision, automatically moving the case to the 15th Court of Appeals, which subsequently stayed the injunction on June 5.
Reports from MJBizDaily and KUT News confirm that while the appellate court’s actions technically made the strict rules enforceable again, actual state actions remain unsettled. DSHS spokesperson Lara Anton stated that the agency is “still determining how to proceed given that there is not a final disposition yet.”