§ 110.002.Application

The application provision, and its last subsection was added in response to specific events.

The chapter applies to any ordinance, rule, order, decision, practice, or other exercise of governmental authority.

"Practice" is the notable inclusion. An unwritten practice with no formal existence is covered, which reaches how officials behave rather than only what they enact.

It applies to an act granting or refusing to grant a government benefit to an individual, so benefit administration is within it.

The chapter applies to each law of this state unless the law is expressly made exempt by reference to this chapter.

That is a strong default and a demanding exemption standard. A later statute does not escape the chapter by being inconsistent with it; it must say so, by reference to this chapter.

The effect is that this chapter overrides Texas law generally unless the Legislature deliberately says otherwise — an unusual position for an ordinary statute.

Subsection (d) addresses declared disasters, and it does two things. The chapter is not considered a regulatory statute, and a provision of it may not be suspended.

Both matter because of how disaster powers work. The Governor may suspend regulatory statutes during a declared disaster, and this places the chapter beyond that power.

The provision was added after the pandemic closures, alongside the separate prohibition on orders closing places of worship — the two together are the Legislature’s answer to that period.