Tag Archives: State: Texas

Education Week: “Texas won’t compete for up to $700 million in federal stimulus money for education because the program ‘smacks of a federal takeover of our public schools,’ Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday.”

Texas Insider: “Americans for Prosperity-Texas will be participating in a rally this Wednesday to encourage State Board of Education members to toughen history curriculum standards and put a renewed emphasis on American Exceptionalism.”

Baptist Press: “A Southern Baptist church was one of two churches in the Athens, Texas, area heavily damaged by what investigators believe were arson fires set in the early morning hours Jan. 12, marking the third such church fire in a week near the East Texas city.”

FoxNews: “This is the first time the State Board of Education is going to get to vote on this, so you can’t take anything for granted,” said Jonathan Saenz, a lobbyist for the conservative Free Market Foundation. “I think it would be a tragedy if students talk about Martin Luther King Jr., while not being able to talk about the fact that he had a strong Christian faith. I’m hoping that’s not the direction we’re headed.”

AP: “The parents of a 4-year-old boy disciplined for having long hair have rejected a compromise from a Texas school board that agreed to adjust its grooming policy.”

Star-Telegram.com: “The trial in U.S. District Judge Terry Means’ court in Fort Worth will deal with TCC’s restrictions on students who tried to stage ‘empty-holster’ protests on campus in support of allowing licensed concealed-handgun owners to bring their weapons on campus.”

The Globe and Mail: “The Grade 11 student was found Thursday afternoon, after his parents spent two days desperately appealing for his safe return. On Wednesday, police had released pictures of Lauri Price, a Texas mother of four who had allegedly flown to Toronto and driven a rental car to collect the teen after striking up a relationship with him while playing the popular online game . . . The teenager had told Ms. Price he was 20 – the age of consent in Canada is 16 – and police said she will not face criminal charges . . . ”

KETKNBC.com: “Planned Parenthood is renovating a former bank, turning it into a 78,000 square foot facility that will include a surgical wing equipped to provide late-term abortions.”

Should Texas’s Former Ban on Obscene Device Promotion Pass Constitutional Muster Under a Murky Lawrence?
Laura M. Clark, 41 St. Mary’s L.J. 177 (2009)

“In Part II, this Comment will summarize the cases and statutes involved in the sex-toy promotion circuit split. Part III will discuss other courts’ holdings on similar issues. Part IV will analyze relevant U.S. Supreme Court holdings and Texas cases, apply Lawrence to the Texas and Alabama statutes, and examine whether the Texas statute might be changed to pass constitutional muster. While the murkiness of Lawrence has spawned a great deal of scholarship on whether it is a fundamental rights analysis or a rational basis analysis, this Comment will focus on the private-versus-commercial right aspect of the debate. This Comment will conclude with a discussion of what a possible U.S. Supreme Court clarification of Lawrence might hold.”

Jacksboro Gazette-News: “Strange is serving his fifth year on the 11th Court of Appeals, following his appointment from Gov. Rick Perry. ”

Hat tip: How Appealing

ABC: “Houston Mayor Annise Parker says her swearing-in as the first openly gay head of the nation’s fourth-largest city marks a milestone for the gay community but that it’s just ‘one step toward a tomorrow of greater justice.’”

Christian Examiner: “Planned Parenthood has dropped a lawsuit against a former clinic director who quit her job after viewing an abortion by means of an ultrasound machine . . . ‘Like so many Planned Parenthood lawsuits, this lawsuit was baseless, so we are pleased that it has been withdrawn,’ Steven Aden, senior legal counsel for ADF, told BP News Service.”

Julie Hilden writes at Findlaw: “Can a public high school ban its students from wearing T-shirts bearing printed messages, unless those messages support the school or its teams, clubs, or activities? A Texas case raises this interesting question and the high school student who brought that case, Pete Palmer, would like to see the case go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the Court does take the case, Palmer should prevail.”

SCOTUS Blog: On October 5, the Court took what seemed to be a fairly unusual step in No. 08-1596, Rhine v. Deaton, when it asked the Solicitor General of Texas to file a brief expressing the views of the State of Texas in a challenge to a Texas statute that provides court-appointed counsel to parents facing the termination of their parental rights in proceedings initiated by the state, but not in proceedings initiated by private parties.”

Docket Entries

AP: “Texas health authorities will destroy as many as four million blood samples taken from babies without parental consent and stored indefinitely for scientific research.”

UPI: “Five years after marrying in Massachusetts, Angelique Naylor’s spouse is contesting the split, arguing that since Texas doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, the dissolution shouldn’t be recognized either, KXAN-TV, Austin, reported.”

PRNEWSWIRE: “Just in time for Christmas, Liberty Legal Institute sent a demand letter today on behalf of Joe Mitchell, a retired Dallas resident and student, to Eastfield College in the Dallas County Community College District revealing their unconstitutional attack on religious expression in the classroom . . . Click here to view the demand letter.”

Liberty Legal Institute

“A woman and her boyfriend were arrested in San Juan, Texas, after an aborted fetus was found in a gift box under her Christmas tree, police said.”

Monroe Courier: “A store located near the entrance to Bentwater that sold adult videos and other sexually suggestive items closed its doors last week in the wake of complaints by some Bentwater residents that the store was a bad fit for the community.”

Baptist Press: “Bucking the pleas of nearly 10,000 local petitioners, the Travis County Board of Central Health in Austin unanimously approved a renewal contract worth about $450,000 to fund abortions for poor women with county property taxes.”

My Way (AP): “[Annise] Parker defeated former city attorney Gene Locke with 53.6 percent of the vote Saturday in a race that had a turnout of only 16.5 percent.”

Law.com (Texas Lawyer): On Nov. 20, state Rep. Ellen Cohen, D-Houston, and two advocacy groups submitted an amicus brief to the high court in Susan Combs, et al. v. Texas Entertainment Association, et al. in the hopes of shedding more light on the reasons the Texas Legislature passed the 2008 law. The law imposes a $5 tax on each customer who enters a sexually oriented business (SOB) that serves alcohol. Cohen, who directed the Houston Area Women’s Center for 18 years, sponsored H.B. 1751, which created the SOB law. [See Cohen's amicus brief, the petitioner's brief on the merits and the respondents' brief on the merits.]

FIRE: “Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) releases its 2010 report on campus speech codes, revealing that for the second year in a row, the percentage of American colleges and universities that systematically violate students’ and faculty members’ right to freedom of expression has dropped. However, 71 percent of the 375 campuses analyzed still maintain codes that grant students less freedom of speech than they enjoy off campus.”

EducationNews.org: FIRE Report: 88 Percent of Texas Colleges Restrict Free Speech

EducationNews.org: “Texas’s charter school law is one of the nation’s weakest, according to a study released today by the national nonprofit Center for Education Reform. In terms of providing children with access to great public schools, Texas ranks 25th in the country with a D grade, the report indicates. Thirteen states, in total, received Ds.’

Marvin Olasy writes at Townhall: “Under a provocative headline—’Will a Culture of Entitlement Bankrupt Higher Education?’—Shirvani compared colleges and universities to the auto industry and noted that “resistance to change in academe has helped create inflexible, unsustainable organizations” like General Motors . . . Rob Koons, the University of Texas professor removed last fall as head of a UT Western Civilization program (see “Losing a beachhead”, Sept. 12), is proposing that Texas legislators back the creation of charter colleges, as they now support the creation of charter schools.”

LifeNews: “Army officials have filed more charges against Nidal Malik Hasan, who stands accused of killing 12 soldiers and one civilian in last month’s shooting. However, the charges do not include any for killing soldier Francheska Velez’s unborn child, despite requests from pro-life groups . . . ‘All murder victims–born and pre-born–deserve equal justice,’ ADF senior legal counsel Steven Aden told LifeNews.com at the time. ‘Women who volunteer to protect our country deserve to know that the government will enforce the laws that protect their children.’”

CommonDreams.org: “The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will hear arguments Friday, December 4, in an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling that the Needville, Texas Independent School District (NISD) violated the U.S. Constitution and Texas state law by punishing an American Indian kindergarten student for wearing his long hair in braids as an expression of his heritage and religious faith.”

Texas AG Press Release: “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit defending the constitutionality of the Texas Pledge of Allegiance.”

Post-Bulletin.com: “Then, despite what Deel called a “mountain of evidence” that Yisrayl Hawkins has dozens of wives and promoted bigamy to sect members, the county attorney decided he couldn’t afford to spend $30,000 on a case where ‘the outcome was uncertain.’”

Planned Parenthood has quietly dropped its lawsuit against the former director of its Bryan health center who quit her job after observing an abortion procedure.

Houston Chronicle (AP): “‘The Army has successfully integrated women into the most effective military force in history,’ Steven H. Aden, ADF’s senior legal counsel, said in a letter to Obama urging a 14th murder charge against Hasan. ‘It would cause a severe and negative impact on morale if Army women were made to believe that the Army valued their children less than they did adult victims of crime.’”

Austin American-Statesman: “‘The Army has successfully integrated women into the most effective military force in history,’ Steven H. Aden, ADF’s senior legal counsel, said in a letter to Obama urging a 14th murder charge against Hasan. ‘It would cause a severe and negative impact on morale if Army women were made to believe that the Army valued their children less than they did adult victims of crime.’”

Baptist Press: “‘All murder victims — born and preborn — deserve equal justice,’ ADF senior legal counsel Steven Aden said in a written release. ‘Women who volunteer to protect our country deserve to know that the government will enforce the laws that protect their children.’”

Catholic News Agency: “The Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of Christian attorneys, has sent a letter to the Office of Staff Judge Advocate at Fort Hood requesting that the murder of Velez’s child be included in the case against Malik.”

Huffington Post: “Ohio state representative Tyrone K. Yates (D-Cincinnati), Kentucky state representative Mary Lou Marzian (D-Jefferson), and Michigan House Speaker Pro Tem Pam Byrnes (D-Washtenaw County) have all introduced legislation to repeal their state’s respective marriage amendments.”

Star-Telegram: “Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state . . . ‘It’s a silly argument,’ said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Legal Institute in Plano.”

WorldNetDailya: “More topically, the activist group Alliance Defense Fund is agitating for a 14th murder charge against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Islamist terrorist who “allegedly” killed 13 people during the shooting at Fort Hood that left 30 other people wounded. One of Hasan’s victims was a pregnant woman; the ADF wants Hasan held culpable for that unborn child’s death . . . There is a common thread to all of these news stories . . . all discussion of abortion revolves around the implication, the begged question and conclusion, that an unborn baby is a baby.”

Atlanta Headlines Examiner: “‘All murder victims – born and pre-born – deserve equal justice,’ ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden said in a news release. ‘Women who volunteer to protect our country deserve to know that the government will enforce the laws that protect their children.’”

Houston Chronicle: “The group is motivated by concerns about a “gay takeover” of City Hall, given that two other candidates in the five remaining City Council races are also openly gay, as well as national interest driven by the possibility that Houston could become the first major U.S. city to elect an openly gay woman.”

Mt. Soledad in the Supreme Court’s Crosshairs: Why Legislative Recognition Should be Considered in Public Displays of Religion
Adrian R. Contreras, 40 McGeorge L. Rev. 973 (2009)

“This Comment addresses whether the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial satisfies the Establishment Clause in light of the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case Van Orden v. Perry. In the Van Orden case, a divided Court upheld the placement of a monolith of the Ten Commandments at the Texas State Capitol. In the plurality opinion, four Justices concluded that the monolith was ‘passive,’ focusing on the monolith’s nature and American history in finding no Establishment Clause violation. In his concurring opinion, Justice Breyer emphasized the physical nature of the monolith, its nonreligious purpose, and its forty-year presence at the site. Proponents of the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial contend that Van Orden supports the view that certain religious displays are constitutional.”

Law.com (National Law Journal): “Lawyers involved in the court-martial of the man accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, will shoulder incredible pressure from inside and outside the military to get it right, experts on military law say.”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) wants the accused Fort Hood shooter, Major Nadil Malik Hasan, charged with an additional murder . . . ‘The Uniform Code of Military Justice reflects the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which was passed in 2005 to protect unborn children,’ the attorney explains. ‘The law says that it is murder to cause the death of a child in utero at the time of the murder, regardless of whether the killer intended to kill the child.’”

LifeNews: “A pro-life legal group has asked the U.S. military to charge Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan with the unlawful killing of an unborn child in the shooting that recently took place at the Fort Hood military base . . . ‘All murder victims–born and pre-born–deserve equal justice,’ ADF senior legal counsel Steven Aden told LifeNews.com on Thursday. ‘Women who volunteer to protect our country deserve to know that the government will enforce the laws that protect their children.’”

Killing of ‘Baby Velez’ is violation of Uniform Code of Military Justice

Examiner.com: “As we and the Manchester Union-Leader noted earlier, the Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hasan, escaped any preventive action because of a politically-correct obsession with ‘diversity,’ which made officers reluctant to report Hasan’s extremist remarks in favor of terrorism and against non-Muslims, lest they be accused of discrimination or insensitivity.”

Austin American-Statesman: “Gov. Rick Perry had some pretty strong comments about the Obama administration on Wednesday in Midland, saying, ‘This is an administration hell-bent on taking America towards a socialist country.’”

OneNewsNow: “‘Planned Parenthood got its temporary restraining order against Abby Johnson thrown out because the judge said they had no evidence that this former director of Planned Parenthood’s College Station clinic had absconded with any confidential information regarding its employees or patients,’ [Steven H. Aden] reports.”

CitizenLink: “A judge has thrown out Planned Parenthood’s request for a restraining order against Abby Johnson, the former director of an abortion clinic in Bryan, Texas . . . ‘This is just another example of a Planned Parenthood bullying tactic,’ [Steven Aden] said, ‘trying to silence those who speak out and expose their lies and fraud to women.’”

ADF attorney Austin R. Nimocks on The Word 100.7 FM with host Donald Thornton to discuss the homosexual agenda.

The MP3 runs just under 40 minutes.

David French, Director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, writing at National Review’s Phi Beta Cons blog: “On Friday, FIRE reported that a federal judge in Texas had issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) permitting two students to hold an ‘empty holder’ protest next week outside Tarrant County College’s tiny ‘free speech zone.’”

ADF attorneys help former Texas abortion clinic director fight baseless claims that she absconded with confidential information

Metro News (AP): “Raymond Jessop, 38, was convicted late Thursday for having sex with the teen with whom he had a so-called spiritual marriage. He faces up to 20 years in prison when the jury reconvenes Monday to begin deciding his sentence.”

“[Dr. Curtis] Boyd is the only doctor in North Texas who will perform late-term abortions to women up to six months pregnant . . . ‘Am I killing?’ Boyd said. ‘Yes, I am. I know that.’”

Wired.com: “A 22-year veteran kindergarten teacher in the Texas Bible Belt could lose her job for refusing, on religious grounds, to give fingerprints under a state law requiring them.”

Dallas Morning News: “Should taxpayer-funded health insurance pay for city employees’ sex-change operations? The proposal was one of 20 recommendations presented by a city-sponsored diversity task force formed more than three months ago after local and state police improperly raided a downtown gay bar.”

Freedom from Religion Foundation: “First-graders in a Hondo, Texas, public elementary school will no longer be saying prayers at the direction of their teacher, said the school principal in response to a complaint from the Freedom From Religion Foundation on behalf of one of its Texas members.”

AP: “Parker, who would be the first openly gay mayor of Houston, collected nearly 31 percent of the vote Tuesday.”

“Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has sent the White House two suggestions for the post of U.S. attorney in San Antonio. One of the candidates is a highly regarded career prosecutor and judge who also, it turns out, is openly gay . . . ”

Video is available on Breitbart.

Related LifeNews report: Planned Parenthood Director in Texas Resigns, Watched Ultrasound of Abortion

KBTX: “Planned Parenthood has been a part of Abby Johnson’s life for the past eight years; that is until last month, when Abby resigned. Johnson said she realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure.”

CNSNews: “A 1970s-era Texas law that allows parents to show “harmful material” to their children has come under fire after a prosecutor said he couldn’t file charges against a man accused of forcing his 8- and 9-year-old daughters to watch hardcore online pornography.”

Religion Clause Blog: “At each home football game, students hand out cards with the words of the Lord’s Prayer outside the stadium. Then ten minutes before game time, students hold up signs in the stadium asking fans to stand and recite the Lord’s Prayer with them. Later, a voice over the PA system, will announce that the school did not organize or participate in the prayer.”

Houston Chronicle (AP): “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is being asked for an opinion on a law that a Dallas-area woman says let her ex-husband show their children pornography.”

WOAI: “Employees say a new west side club opening Thursday is exclusive. The city says it’s private. But parents say what’s going on in the club is not staying in the club.”

Free Market Foundation Legislative Update: “We testified last week against Travis County’s efforts last week to use $450,000 of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions. Their response by the Travis County Health District after ours and the testimony of many others, was to run and hide . . . ”

Law.com (Texas Lawyer): “For the first time in almost 20 years, the Texas Supreme Court has proposed comprehensive changes in the state’s disciplinary rules for lawyers, including major amendments to conflicts rules and a new rule prohibiting lawyers from having sex with clients.”

Associated Press: “More than 150 potential jurors, including 10 women in prairie dresses and braids, crammed into a makeshift courtroom Monday as jury selection began in the first criminal trial stemming from the raid of a polygamist sect’s ranch last year.”

Free Market Foundation, Texas Legislative Blog: “As many of you know, there are 11 Texas Constitutional Amendments on the ballot. Early voting continues until October 30th with the general election day on Nov. 3rd. Click here for a link to our Voter Guide. http://www.freemarket.org/Img/2009%20Constitutional%20Amendments”

ABClocal.go.com: “A local woman has announced details of her federal lawsuit against the city of Houston. She says the city is violating the Constitution by allowing prayers at public council meetings.”

WOAI: “A West Side neighborhood is fighting back. A new gentlemen’s club is set to open up off Old Highway 90 and residents want to know why they were never told about it.”

WorldNetDaily: “A survey launched by university faculty members in Texas is raising alarms over its suggestion that there should be additional laws ‘that would affect members of the Christian Right.’”

Martin Guggenheim, Texas Polygamy and Child Welfare (September 17, 2009). Houston Law Review, Vol. 46, No. 3, 2009. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1474983

“This article explains why the child welfare process was used in the 2008 San Angelo, Texas raid on the FLDS community which resulted in the removal of more than 400 children from their families. It argues that the criminal justice system, not the child welfare system, should be the preferred means by which state officials attempt to prevent the practice of polygamy. The criminal justice system contains many more time honored protections of civil liberties than the child welfare system.”

American-Statesman: “‘People think Texas, that’s a conservative state, they’re not likely to have a judge strike down their marriage law. But all it takes is one lawsuit, one judge, and it can really happen everywhere,’said Jim Campbell, a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of Christian attorneys that plans to oppose the Texas ruling. ‘There’s always a fire to put out somewhere.’”

Christianity Today: “Last week, a Texas judge effectively overturned the state’s marriage law, ruling that a gay couple that had married in Massachusetts could file for divorce in Texas. Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said that Indiana and Rhode Island have previously refused similar requests, and that a same-sex divorce case is on the docket in Oklahoma.”

CBS 11: “A report issued Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas claims that Gideon Bibles which were passed out in schools were used to harass and hurt several students in Plano and Frisco.”