2023S0054-T 01/23/23
 
  By: Middleton S.B. No. 649
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to participation in athletic activities based on
  biological sex; providing a civil right to action for K-12 athletes
  and college athletes.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the Save
  Women's Sports Act.
         SECTION 2.  The heading to Section 33.0834, Education Code,
  is amended to read as follows:
         Sec. 33.0834.  [INTERSCHOLASTIC] ATHLETIC PARTICIPATION
  [COMPETITION] BASED ON BIOLOGICAL SEX.
         SECTION 3.  Section 33.0834, Education Code, is amended by
  amending Subsections (a) and (b) and adding Subsections (e), (f),
  and (g) to read as follows:
         (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b), an
  [interscholastic] athletic team or sport sponsored or authorized by
  a school district, [or] open-enrollment charter school, or any
  private school that competes against a public school may not allow a
  student to participate [compete] in an [interscholastic] athletic
  team or sport [competition] sponsored or authorized by the district
  or school that is designated for the biological sex opposite to the
  student's biological sex as correctly stated on:
               (1)  the student's official birth certificate, as
  described by Subsection (c); or
               (2)  if the student's official birth certificate
  described by Subdivision (1) is unobtainable, another government
  record that accurately states the student's biological sex.
         (b)  An [interscholastic] athletic team or sport described
  by Subsection (a) may allow a female student to participate
  [compete] in an [interscholastic] athletic team or sport
  [competition] that is designated for male students if a
  corresponding [interscholastic] athletic team or sport
  [competition] designated for female students is not offered or
  available.
         (e)  A student shall have a private cause of action for
  injunctive relief, damages, attorney's fees and costs, and any
  other relief available under law if the student is:
               (1)  deprived of an athletic opportunity or suffers any
  direct or indirect harm as a result of a school district, charter
  school, or private school knowingly violating this Act; or
               (2)  subject to retaliation or other adverse action by
  a school district, charter school, private school, the University
  Interscholastic League, or any athletic association or
  organization as a result of reporting a violation of this Act.
         (f)  Sovereign immunity, governmental immunity, official
  immunity, and qualified immunity are waived and abrogated and may
  not be asserted as a defense in any action brought under Subsection
  (e).
         (g)  Notwithstanding any other law, the requirements and
  provisions of this section prevail over any conflicting or
  potentially conflicting statute, and no statute may be construed to
  repeal the requirements or provisions of this section in whole or in
  part, either expressly or by implication, unless the repealing
  statute explicitly states that it is repealing a requirement or
  provision of this section.
         SECTION 4.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
  amended by adding Section 51.982 to read as follows:
         Sec. 51.982.  ATHLETIC PARTICIPATION BASED ON BIOLOGICAL
  SEX. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), an athletic team or
  sport sponsored or authorized by a public institution of higher
  education, public junior college, or any private institution or
  private junior college that competes against a public institution
  or public junior college may not allow a student to participate in
  an athletic team or sport sponsored or authorized by the
  institution of higher education or junior college that is
  designated for the biological sex opposite to the student's
  biological sex as correctly stated on:
               (1)  the student's official birth certificate, as
  described by Subsection (c); or
               (2)  if the student's official birth certificate
  described by Subdivision (1) is unobtainable, another government
  record that accurately states the student's biological sex.
         (b)  An athletic team or sport described by Subsection (a)
  may allow a female student to participate in an athletic team or
  sport that is designated for male students if a corresponding
  athletic team or sport designated for female students is not
  offered or available.
         (c)  For purposes of this section, a statement of a student's
  biological sex on the student's official birth certificate is
  considered to have correctly stated the student's biological sex
  only if the statement was:
               (1)  entered at or near the time of the student's birth;
  or
               (2)  modified to correct any type of scrivener or
  clerical error in the student's biological sex.
         (d)  A student shall have a private cause of action for
  injunctive relief, damages, attorney's fees and costs, and any
  other relief available under law if the student is:
               (1)  deprived of an athletic opportunity or suffers any
  direct or indirect harm as a result of an institution of higher
  education or junior college knowingly violating this Act; or
               (2)  subject to retaliation or other adverse action by
  an institution of higher education, junior college, or any athletic
  association or organization as a result of reporting a violation of
  this Act.
         (e)  Sovereign immunity, governmental immunity, official
  immunity, and qualified immunity are waived and abrogated and may
  not be asserted as a defense in any action brought under Subsection
  (d).
         (f)  Notwithstanding any other law, the requirements and
  provisions of this section prevail over any conflicting or
  potentially conflicting statute, and no statute may be construed to
  repeal the requirements or provisions of this section in whole or in
  part, either expressly or by implication, unless the repealing
  statute explicitly states that it is repealing a requirement or
  provision of this section.
         SECTION 5.  Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
  amended by adding Section 30.023 to read as follows:
         Sec. 30.023.  AWARD OF ATTORNEY'S FEES IN ACTIONS
  CHALLENGING CERTAIN EDUCATION LAWS. (a) Notwithstanding any other
  law, any person, including an entity, attorney, or law firm, who
  seeks declaratory or injunctive relief to prevent this state, a
  political subdivision, any governmental entity or public official
  in this state, or any person in this state from enforcing any
  statute, ordinance, rule, regulation, or any other type of law that
  regulates athletic participation based on biological sex in any
  state or federal court, or that represents any litigant seeking
  such relief in any state or federal court, is jointly and severally
  liable to pay the costs and reasonable attorney's fees of the
  prevailing party, including the costs and reasonable attorney's
  fees that the prevailing party incurs in its efforts to recover
  costs and fees.
         (b)  For purposes of this section, a party is considered a
  prevailing party if a state or federal court:
               (1)  dismisses any claim or cause of action brought
  against the party that seeks the declaratory or injunctive relief
  described by Subsection (a), regardless of the reason for the
  dismissal; or
               (2)  enters judgment in the party's favor on any such
  claim or cause of action.
         (c)  A prevailing party may recover costs and attorney's fees
  under this section only to the extent that those costs and
  attorney's fees were incurred while defending claims or causes of
  action on which the party prevailed.
         (d)  Regardless of whether a prevailing party sought to
  recover costs or attorney's fees in the underlying action, a
  prevailing party under this section may bring a civil action to
  recover costs and attorney's fees against a person, including an
  entity, attorney, or law firm, that sought declaratory or
  injunctive relief described by Subsection (a) not later than the
  third anniversary of the date on which, as applicable:
               (1)  the dismissal or judgment described by Subsection
  (b) becomes final on the conclusion of appellate review; or
               (2)  the time for seeking appellate review expires.
         (e)  It is not a defense to an action brought under
  Subsection (d) that:
               (1)  a prevailing party under this section failed to
  seek recovery of costs or attorney's fees in the underlying action;
               (2)  the court in the underlying action declined to
  recognize or enforce the requirements of this section; or
               (3)  the court in the underlying action held that any
  provisions of this section are invalid, unconstitutional, or
  preempted by federal law, notwithstanding the doctrines of issue or
  claim preclusion.
         (f)  Notwithstanding any other law, including Chapter 15,
  Civil Practice and Remedies Code, a civil action brought under
  Subsection (d) may be brought in:
               (1)  the county in which all or a substantial part of
  the events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred;
               (2)  the county of residence for any one of the natural
  person defendants at the time the cause of action accrued;
               (3)  the county of the principal office in this state of
  any one of the defendants that is not a natural person; or
               (4)  the county of residence for the claimant if the
  claimant is a natural person residing in this state.
         (g)  If a civil action is brought under Subsection (d) in any
  one of the venues described by Subsection (f), then the action may
  not be transferred to a different venue without the written consent
  of all parties.
         (h)  Any contractual choice-of-forum provision that purports
  to require a civil action under Subsection (d) to be litigated in
  another forum shall be void as against public policy and may not be
  enforced in any state or federal court.
         SECTION 6.  SEVERABILITY. (a)  Mindful of Leavitt v. Jane
  L., 518 U.S. 137 (1996), in which in the context of determining the
  severability of a state statute the United States Supreme Court
  held that an explicit statement of legislative intent is
  controlling, it is the intent of the legislature that every
  provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word
  in this Act, and every application of the provisions in this Act to
  every person, group of persons, or circumstances, are severable
  from each other.
         (b)  If any application of any provision in this Act to any
  person, group of persons, or circumstances is found by a court to be
  invalid, preempted, or unconstitutional, for any reason
  whatsoever, then the remaining applications of that provision to
  all other persons and circumstances shall be severed and preserved
  and shall remain in effect.  All constitutionally valid
  applications of the provisions in this Act shall be severed from any
  applications that a court finds to be invalid, preempted, or
  unconstitutional, because it is the legislature's intent and
  priority that every single valid application of every statutory
  provision be allowed to stand alone.
         (c)  The legislature further declares that it would have
  enacted this Act, and each provision, section, subsection,
  sentence, clause, phrase, or word and all constitutional
  applications of the provisions of this Act, irrespective of the
  fact that any provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause,
  phrase, or word or applications of this Act were to be declared
  invalid, preempted, or unconstitutional.
         (d)  If any provision of this Act is found by any court to be
  unconstitutionally vague, then the applications of that provision
  that do not present constitutional vagueness problems shall be
  severed and remain in force, consistent with the severability
  requirements of Subsections (a), (b), and (c) of this section.
         (e)  No court may decline to enforce the severability
  requirements of Subsections (a), (b), (c), and (d) of this section
  on the ground that severance would "rewrite" the statute or involve
  the court in legislative or lawmaking activity. A court that
  declines to enforce or enjoins a state official from enforcing a
  statutory provision is never rewriting a statute or engaging in
  legislative or lawmaking activity, as the statute continues to
  contain the same words as before the court's decision. A judicial
  injunction or declaration of unconstitutionality:
               (1)  is nothing more than an edict prohibiting
  enforcement of the disputed statute against the named parties to
  that lawsuit, which may subsequently be vacated by a later court if
  that court has a different understanding of the requirements of the
  Texas Constitution or United States Constitution;
               (2)  is not a formal amendment of the language in a
  statute; and
               (3)  no more rewrites a statute than a decision by the
  executive not to enforce a duly enacted statute in a limited and
  defined set of circumstances.
         (f)  If any state or federal court disregards any of the
  severability requirements in Subsection (a), (b), (c), (d), or (e),
  of this section and declares or finds any provision of this Act
  facially invalid, preempted, or unconstitutional, when there are
  discrete applications of that provision that can be enforced
  against a person, group of persons, or circumstances without
  violating federal law or the federal or state constitutions, then
  that provision shall be interpreted, as a matter of state law, as if
  the legislature had enacted a provision limited to the persons,
  group of persons, or circumstances for which the provision's
  application will not violate federal law or the federal or state
  constitutions, and every court shall adopt this saving construction
  of that provision until the court ruling that pronounced the
  provision facially invalid, preempted, or unconstitutional is
  vacated or overruled.
         SECTION 7.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
  a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
  provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
  Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
  Act takes effect September 1, 2023.