What Is The 'Death Star Bill' & What Does It Have To Do With Star Wars?
As the saying goes, life imitates art, but when it comes to "Star Wars," the last comparisons you want to draw involve the Empire, even if the evil regime is the best part of "Star Wars." Unfortunately for the Texas Legislature, it didn't take long for House Bill 2127, aka the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, to be nicknamed the "Death Star" Bill.
Introduced by the Texas' Republican Party to the state's legislature, the bill attempts to bring consistency across the state's local governments by blocking any legislation that clashes with existing state laws. If passed, the "Death Star" Bill would give the state government authority to override its local counterparts, ruling on areas regarding business, agriculture, and finance. Supporters of the bill suggest it would make it easier to conduct business in Texas. However, those in opposition related it to the Empire in a galaxy far, far away, which strove to bring a similar consistency to the entire "Star Wars" galaxy, uniting it under one rule.
Those opposing it didn't take long to fire back at the Texan Republicans' "Death Star" Bill. The Texas Tribune reported Houston's local government was suing the state to block it, with San Antonio and El Paso joining shortly after. Even more recently, The Tribune reported that State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble has ruled the "Death Star" Bill unconstitutional, citing that the Legislature aimed to undermine Texas' Democratic-leaning metropolitan areas.
President Reagan had his own Star Wars-themed bill
Texas' "Death Star" Bill isn't the only United States legislation to garner comparisons to "Star Wars," as President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) received a similar nickname in 1983.
During a nationally televised address, which you can now watch on YouTube, President Reagan introduced the SDI as part of his new defense budget, a space-based defense program designed to defend the United States from missile attacks from the Soviet Union. Using a high-tech system of lasers based on Earth and in space, the SDI was meant to shoot down missiles as their flight paths took them into the atmosphere, destroying them before they ever reached U.S. airspace. Reagan saw the SDI as a long-term investment by Congress for the country's future, requiring the U.S. to research and develop the technology to make it a reality, as it did not exist yet.
Understandably, it did not take long for the "Star Wars" comparisons to come flooding in, with Senator Ted Kennedy describing Reagan's speech to The Washington Post as "[a] misleading Red-scare tactic and reckless 'Star Wars' scheme" just a day after the televised speech. Eventually, the nickname took on a life of its own, with the media referring to Reagan's proposal as the "Star Wars program" more than its actual name, the SDI. Although the President and the bill's backers tried to move away from the "Star Wars" name, it caught on too strongly to avoid it, leading "Star Wars" creator George Lucas to sue President Reagan.