Graham Taylor, an associate attorney at Marrs Ellis & Hodge LLP, recently gave his input on the Federal Appeals Court decision in the T&W Holding v. City of Kemah lawsuit.
The three-judge panel from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decided “cities cannot impose additional administrative hurdles before an individual can sue in federal court for alleged violations of constitutional rights” (Hansen, 2025). Mr. Taylor described this decision as “a ‘big win’ for the plaintiff and demonstrates a federal legal trend” (Hansen, 2025).
“‘This is just another case in a line of cases that kicked off in Knick v. Township of Scott in 2019,’ said Taylor. ‘A lot of these locally imposed remedies are designed as a kind of Catch-22 where a landowner has to go through them to get a ‘final decision’ and once they do then they’re told they’ve exhausted the remedies and do not have a claim.’
‘I think the government [of Kemah] reached a conclusive ‘final’ decision when they issued the zero-occupancy notice.’ ” (Hansen, 2025).