Rice University is the latest private college in Texas to announce that it would opt out of the state's new campus carry law. "There is no evidence that allowing the carrying of guns on our campus will make the campus safer,” Rice President David Leebron said Monday in an email to students announcing the decision. “The most knowledgeable professional groups believe that guns will make campuses less safe."
- Kim Davis one of 59 in running for TIME Person of the Year.
Rowan county clerk Kim Davis is in the race to become TIME Magazine's 'Person of the Year.' Davis received national attention this summer after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She was jailed for five days after she defied a federal court order to issue the marriage licenses. Davis has since returned to work, but when she got out of jail she altered marriage licenses her deputies issued. She removed her name and the county's name.
- Texas Supreme Court strikes down eyebrow-threading regulations: 6-3 ruling says eyebrow-threaders don't need cosmetology licenses.
This is not the first pointless cosmetology licensing law to be overturned in Texas this year, with help from the Institute for Justice. In January, a federal judge ruled against state requirements mandating that professional hairbraiders meet the same high licensing standards as barbers. In April, the state House of Representatives voted unanimously to deregulate hairbraiding, and in June the governor signed the braiding bill into law.
- Texas Threatens To Sue Aid Groups That Help Syrian Refugees.
Texas has threatened to kill funding and sue social services organizations if they defy Gov. Greg Abbott's refusal to accept Syrian refugees -- an order Abbott issued without the legal power to do so. Chris Traylor, executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, issued the threat in a Nov. 25 letter to the International Rescue Committee in Dallas. The threat came a week after 31 governors - 30 of them Republican - claimed their states would refuse to accept any more Syrian refugees, though states, and governors, have no legal authority to exclude legally admitted refugees.
- U.S. files motion against Texas plan to bar Syrian refugees.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a motion in federal court on Friday against a request by Texas to halt pending resettlement of Syrian refugees there, with federal officials saying the state lacks the authority to act on national immigration policy. A relief agency that plans to resettle two Syrian families in the coming days filed a separate motion filed at the U.S. District Court in Dallas, contending that Texas cannot discriminate against refugees on the basis of nationality because that violates U.S. civil rights laws.
- Texas Supreme Court to again hear that state is shortchanging schools.
Shut out by lawmakers in their efforts to overhaul the state’s troubled education funding system, more than 600 school districts are now pinning their hopes for relief on the Texas Supreme Court. The high court will hear arguments on the volatile issue of school finance Tuesday, once again taking up the question of whether the current funding system is unfair and inadequate. It will be the seventh time in the last quarter-century that the court has been called on to settle a legal challenge over the way Texas funds the education of millions of children.
- Supreme Court to Again Consider Affirmative Action.
The U.S. Supreme Court has considered the merits of affirmative action on more than one occasion – and will examine the issue once again in Fisher v. University of Texas.
Abigail Fisher, who is supported by the Project on Fair Representation, didn’t get into the University of Texas. Fisher, who said she was rejected because she is white, indicating that less-qualified non-white classmates with lower grades were accepted.
- Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Texas Abortion Law Case.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to a Texas law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and requires abortion clinics to have the facilities of an outpatient surgical center.
