From Vox: Delaware death penalty law declared unconstitutional by state’s highest court

Add this to our discussion of criminal justice, the Bill of Rights, due process, juries, state judicial systems, and political culture - among other things.

- Click here for the article.

Delaware’s death penalty is unconstitutional, the state’s Supreme Court declared on Tuesday.

As Jessica Masulli Reyes reported for the News Journal, the 148-page opinion struck down how the death penalty is applied in Delaware, declaring it a violation of the Sixth Amendment–sanctioned role of a jury. The ruling follows the US Supreme Court’s January decision against Florida’s death penalty on similar grounds.

So this doesn’t mean that Delaware’s death penalty is completely dead, since it could be revived by the state’s legislature if lawmakers alter how a death sentence is carried out.
But if Delaware’s legislature does not act, New Hampshire will become the only state in the northeastern part of the country that still allows the death penalty

From the Texas Tribune: Texas Supreme Court Upholds School Funding System

A repost from a few months back - a look at Texas' top civil court, and education policy in Texas, and the meaning of the Texas Constitution.

- Click here for the article.

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday issued a ruling upholding the state’s public school funding system as constitutional, while also urging state lawmakers to implement "transformational, top-to-bottom reforms that amount to more than Band-Aid on top of Band-Aid."

But without a court order directing the Legislature to fix specific provisions in the system, school groups worry that lawmakers will either do nothing or something outside the box.

“Our Byzantine school funding ‘system’ is undeniably imperfect, with immense room for improvement. But it satisfies minimum constitutional requirements,” Justice Don Willettwrote in the court’s 100-page opinion, which asserts that the court’s “lenient standard of review in this policy-laden area counsels modesty.”

There were no dissenting opinions; Justices Eva Guzman and Jeff Boyd delivered concurring ones.

"Good enough now ... does not mean that the system is good or that it will continue to be enough," Guzman wrote. "Shortfalls in both resources and performance persist in innumerable respects, and a perilously large number of students is in danger of falling further behind."

Friday’s ruling is the second time the state’s highest civil court has upheld the state’s school finance system. Since the 1980s, school districts have repeatedly sued the state in an attempt to increase public education funding, and have often prevailed. The latest case, brought by more than two-thirds of Texas school districts, is the seventh time such a case has reached the state Supreme Court.

For background:
- Edgewood v. Kirby.
- Rodriquez v. SAISD.

From the New Yorker: THE NATHAN HECHT STORY: CONSERVATIVES CAPTURING COURTS

A look at the current Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court and the role he has played in using the courts to push the conservative agenda.

- Click here for the article.

Hecht’s brief moment as a major public figure thus illustrated one of the larger themes of recent American political history: the centrality of the United States Supreme Court to the conservative movement. But the story of the following eight years in Hecht’s judicial career suggests something nearly as important: the transformation of state supreme courts into engines of conservative change.

For much of American history, state courts were relatively sleepy outposts for lions of the local bar. But starting in the nineteen-eighties, state supreme courts (particularly in states where judges are elected rather than appointed) became political battlegrounds. This was especially true in Texas, where a young political consultant named Karl Rove ran the campaigns that turned the Texas Supreme Court from all-Democrat to all-Republican. When Hecht first won election to the Court, in 1988, Rove ran his campaign. Led by Hecht and other Rove clients, the Texas Court became a firm ally of local business interests, especially the insurance industry.

Regarding the Texas Judiciary

A few items in the news.

All from the Texas Tribune.

- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Launches Final Appeal in Securities Fraud Case.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is appealing the securities fraud charges against him to the state's highest criminal court, in one last bid to dismiss the case before it potentially goes to trial.

Paxton's attorneys filed the appeal Tuesday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, asking the Austin-based court to do away with the three felony indictments facing the attorney general. The case, now more than a year old, centers on allegations that Paxton misled investors in private business dealings from before his time as attorney general.

"Ken Paxton has been charged with a crime that simply doesn't exist, using a grand jury that was improperly impaneled," Paxton lawyer Bill Mateja said in a statement. "This petition was filed with the Court of Criminal Appeals to not only correct the lower court's mistake but to end this improper prosecution."

- Tiny Nordheim Sues State Over Drilling Waste Dump.

A tiny South Texas town is continuing to fight plans for an oil and gas waste site half its size, even after state regulators gave developers the go-ahead to build it.

A citizen's group in Nordheim — population 316 at last count — is suing the Texas Railroad Commission, challenging the petroleum regulator’s decision to permit a facility that would store waste including drill cuttings, oil-based muds, fracking sand and other toxic oilfield leftovers.

Filed late last month in Travis County district court, the lawsuit argues that the commission's three members erred in May when they unanimously approved the development by San Antonio-based Pyote Reclamation Systems.

- Lawyers: Fetal Remains Rule Could Lead to Lawsuit.

Texas' proposed rules requiring the cremation or burial of fetal remains "will almost certainly trigger costly litigation," reproductive rights lawyers say.

In a letter to the Texas Department of State Health Services, lawyers with the Center for Reproductive Rights on Monday argued that the new rules — proposed at Gov. Greg Abbott's directive — are "plainly in violation" of the legal standard abortion regulations must meet to be deemed constitutional.

- Paxton Says "Frivolous" Campus Carry Lawsuit Has No Merit.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday called a lawsuit brought by three University of Texas at Austin professors against the state’s campus carry law “frivolous” and said the professors have no valid reasons for opposing guns on campus.

Paxton filed a brief in response to the lawsuit Monday, saying the professors' request to block the law — which went into effect Monday — before the first day of fall classes is unconstitutional.

. . . UT Austin professors Jennifer Lynn Glass, Lisa Moore and Mia Carter filed a lawsuit opposing the state’s campus carry law last month. They asked a federal court judge to grant an injunction that would block students from carrying guns into university buildings before the first day of class, which will be Aug. 24. Paxton's brief opposes the request for an injunction, saying it would be unlawful to ban concealed carry of guns on campus. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Thursday.

From The Texas Observer: The Interview: Judge John Dietz on Texas’ School Finance Crisis

Deitz was the district judge who ruled that the recent cuts by the Texas Legislature in school finance were unconstitutional. This was overturned by the Texas Supreme Court.

Her reacts to the decision in an interview.

- Click here for it.

Texas Observer: When the Texas Supreme Court held the school funding system was constitutional, the justices spent plenty of time explaining why your ruling was wrong. What did you think about theirs?

John Dietz: Well, I don’t think they thought too much of my judgment, and I didn’t think too much of their decision. The way I viewed it was, [in the past] the Supreme Court has said this system needs to be fixed and you need to fix it now. The Legislature has never done that, unless you make them. They want to be told to do this because it gives them cover. I think that was an attempt, in my opinion — and it’s not a learned opinion — to get out of the school-finance litigation business altogether.

The law says that the Legislative Budget Board shall come up with a number. Nobody’s ever followed that law. So it’s always guesswork as to how much an accredited, adequate education costs. There is a criticism, which [Supreme Court Justice Don] Willett alludes to in the opinion, that there’s not a perfect correlation between the amount of money and the results. Now, there’s not no correlation. [It could be] that it’s inversely correlated, that the more money you get, the worse the outcome. Nobody’s saying it’s that way. Nobody, I think, really knows what the answer is. I think a lot of that has driven testing and accreditation. “Gosh, we’re giving ’em all this money and we’re not necessarily seeing the results.” That same test could be applied to just about anything the government does.

From Ballotpedia ....

- The Texas Supreme Court.
- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

From the Corpus Christi Caller-Times: Courts are chipping at public’s right to know

A critical look at the Texas Supreme Court.

- Click here for the article.

Those of us who keep a close eye on Texas' evolving open government laws watch the state Legislature for signs of change. We also look at how local and state government agencies carry out these laws to see if they are working.

But we must focus on the courts, too.

Troubling rulings by the Texas Supreme Court and lower courts are watering down our Texas Public Information Act, long considered one of the strongest in the nation.
The momentous law, enacted in the early 1970s amid citizen frustration after the

Sharpstown stock fraud scandal, is based on the public's right to know. It presumes government records are open.

If a governmental body wants to withhold information, it can attempt to do so using one of the exceptions spelled out in the law. In most cases it must ask the Texas Attorney General's Office for permission to do it on a case-by-case basis.

That said, some cases end up in court, and the Texas Supreme Court twice last year interpreted the law in ways that made it easier to keep information secret.

The court decided the non-profit Greater Houston Partnership did not have to open its financial books to the public because it was not a governmental body, even though it performed economic development duties for the city of Houston and was supported in part by public funds.

Another disturbing decision involved the aerospace company Boeing operating in San Antonio. The court ruled that a private party doing business with the government can have its information in government documents withheld if releasing it would give advantage to a competitor. Furthermore, governments can now more easily withhold their own information on those grounds.

The result? Information is getting closed off in seemingly straightforward cases of public interest, such as the city of McAllen keeping secret how much taxpayer money it paid for singer Enrique Iglesias to perform at a holiday concert. The city says it doesn't want to be at a competitive disadvantage when negotiating with entertainers.

From Mother Jones: How Dark Money is Taking Over Judicial Elections

Is justice being bought in Texas?

- Click here for the article.

Most people don't think about judicial elections until they find themselves staring at a group of unfamiliar names on the ballot. But judges are selected by voters in 39 states, whether in an initial election or a retention election after being appointed. The explainer below details how special-interest money has increasingly flooded the system over the last several decades—including the first ever set of data on campaign money in lower court races.

State	Lower-court contribution
Texas	$18,124,729
Illinois	$8,987,496
Florida	$7,874,947
Michigan	$4,531,056
California	$4,436,461
New York	$3,933,427
Pennsylvania	$2,438,094
Washington	$2,430,281
Wisconsin	$1,883,062
Oregon	$425,199

The Hidden Spending on Lower Courts

Campaign funding in races for lower courts is even more obscure—despite the fact that these races produce the vast majority of judges, and those most citizens will face. The first ever set of data on these races, compiled for 10 states, shows that more than $55 million was raised during the 2011-12 election cycle alone.

From the New York Times: Critics See Efforts by Counties and Towns to Purge Minority Voters From Rolls

Perhaps this addresses the question posed in the previous post.

- Click here for the article.

. . . the purge of Sparta voters is precisely the sort of electoral maneuver that once would have needed Justice Department approval before it could be put in effect. In Georgia and all or part of 14 other states, the 1965 Voting Rights Act required jurisdictions with histories of voter discrimination to receive so-called preclearance before changing the way voter registration and elections were conducted.

Three years ago, the Supreme Court declared the preclearance mandate unconstitutional, saying the blatant discrimination it was meant to prevent was largely a thing of the past.
But since the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 ruling in the voting-rights case,Shelby County v. Holder, critics argue, the blatant efforts to keep minorities from voting have been supplanted by a blizzard of more subtle changes. Most conspicuous have been state efforts like voter ID laws or cutbacks in early voting periods, which critics say disproportionately affect minorities and the poor. Less apparent, but often just as contentious, have been numerous voting changes enacted in counties and towns across the South and elsewhere around the country.

They appear as Republican legislatures and election officials in the South and elsewhere have imposed statewide restrictions on voting that could depress turnout by minorities and other Democrat-leaning groups in a crucial presidential election year. Georgia and North Carolina, two states whose campaigns against so-called voter fraud have been cast by critics as aimed at black voters, could both be contested states in autumn’s presidential election.

Kristen Clarke, the president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a leading voting-rights advocacy group, said that before the Supreme Court’s Shelby County ruling, discriminatory laws and procedures had been blocked by the preclearance provisions.

Now, she said, “We’re seeing widespread proliferation of these laws. And we are left only with the ability to mount slow, costly case-by-case challenges” to their legality.

From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: See How Texans Turn Out, Vote in Presidential Elections

There's a reason Republican candidates dominate statewide office.

- Click here for the article.

Republicans have had the upper hand in Texas elections for the past two decades, winning every statewide election starting in 1996. Since 2000, the size of that advantage has changed from year to year; in the latest two presidential elections, it shrank, expanding again in the interim years when Texas elects its governors and most other statewide officeholders.

The numbers here represent the averages for Republicans and Democrats in statewide elections where both major parties had candidates. Races that featured a Republican and one or two third-party candidates were not included since this is a measure of the strength of the major parties.

The average margin for this period was the smallest in 2008, when the average statewide candidates were separated by 8.6 percentage points, and the largest in 2010, when they were 23.9 percentage points apart.

The general elections will be competitive again when the lines cross, which they haven’t done since 1994.

From mySA: Federal judicial vacancies in Texas still an emergency

A reminder that Texas - as the rest of the states - has a dual judicial system. On is elected, the other is appointed.

- Click here for the article.

A year ago today on this page, I criticized the troubling obstructionism by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas.

They have repeatedly failed to fill vacated seats in our state’s federal appellate and district courts, including their opposition to potential nominations of qualified district judges originally recommended by Republicans.

In his response letter, Sen. Cornyn objected to my comments and pointed out that he is working hard to fill these seats and to “ensure Texas has some of the best and brightest judges in these important posts.” 

It has now been a year since Sen. Cornyn’s response. Our state’s federal judiciary is in abysmal shape, as there are still two vacancies on the 5thCircuit Court of Appeals and 10 vacancies — three more than last year — in Texas’ U.S. District Courts. The oldest vacancy goes back to 2011. Additionally, several federal judges are expected to retire in the next few years.

In comparison, there are no appellate vacancies under Missouri and Louisiana, both part of the 5th Circuit. Missouri does not have a U.S. District Court vacancy. Louisiana has three, with one vacated a month ago and two in 2015, both of which have already had Senate hearings.

The Judicial Conference of the United States, headed by Chief Justice John Roberts, has marked all the Texas vacancies as a “judicial emergency,” accounting for 29 percent of the judicial emergencies nationwide — a feat not achieved by any other state. This designation implies that the courts’ current caseload is both excessive and unmanageable. Even if these seats are filled tomorrow, the conference has asked Congress to add many new judgeships to the federal district courts in Texas.

- Click here for Wikipedia's entry on The Judicial Conference of the United States.

From the Texas Tribune: The Brief: Fatal Balloon Crash Raises Safety Concerns

Federalism.

Does Texas even have a hot air balloon policy? Is this fully national?

- Click here for the article.

Sixteen people died in a hot air balloon crash outside Lockhart on Saturday that left no survivors, raising questions about the safety of hot air balloons and how they are regulated.

The Austin American-Statesman reportsthat the balloon “had been gliding along a portion of Caldwell County near Jolly Road, about two miles west of Lockhart, when witnesses said it appeared to strike high-voltage power lines and catch fire.” The Statesman called the crash “one of the most deadly single incidents to hit the Austin area” and “the worst such accident since a 2013 balloon crash in Egypt killed 19.”

The tragedy drew a reaction from Gov. Greg Abbott, who said in a statement that “the investigation into the cause of this tragic accident will continue, and I ask all of Texas to join us in praying for those lost,” as well as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and other Texas officials. Pope Francis also offered his condolences.

As the Statesman reports, the National Transportation Safety Board called for federal officials to more strictly regulate hot air balloons more than two years ago, given what it described as the potential for a “high number of fatalities in a single air tour balloon accident.” Just months ago, the Federal Aviation Administration rejected those recommendations.

“It’s unclear whether the safety recommendations could have prevented Saturday’s catastrophic balloon crash near Lockhart,” the Statesman writes. “But it seems likely that the foretold crash will renew calls for enhanced safety regulation of an industry that has experienced a number of deadly accidents in recent years.”

East Montgomery News: County Judge Doyal, with new attorney Hardin, pleads for reinstatement

For out look at county judges and - sort of - the judiciary.

- Click here for the article.

In an emotional plea Tuesday, Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal asked members of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to reverse his suspension and let him return to the Commissioners Court bench.

However, the commission does not expect to make a decision before its regular meeting session Aug. 10-12.

Chair Valerie Ertz said Doyal would be notified through his legal counsel. Tuesday’s hearing included seven of the 13 members of the commission.

The commission suspended Doyal June 28 after a Montgomery County grand jury indicted him on charges of conspiring to circumvent the Texas Open Meetings Act. The grand jury also indicted Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley, Precinct 4 Commissioner Jim Clark and political consultant Marc Davenport on the same charge.
High-profile Houston-based defense attorney Rusty Hardin, who is now representing Doyal, stressed that since Doyal does not perform judicial functions, the commission should reverse its decision.

“I do not think it is appropriate … for a nonjudicial officer to be suspended,” said Hardin, noting it is “more appropriate” for the issue to be left to the criminal process.
Doyal told the commission it is not within his authority to perform judiciary duties.

However, the commission said while he may not be performing those duties, it does fall within the scope of his position and therefore falls under the jurisdiction of the commission.

From the LBB: Financing the Judiciary in Texas - Legislative Primer

A good look at both the budgeting process, and the Texas judiciary from a financing point of view.

- Click here for it.

Former Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson thinks we don;t spend enough on the justice system.

- Click here for his 2013 State of the Judiciary Address.

For those who can afford legal services, we have a top-notch judicial system. Highly qualified lawyers help courts dispense justice fairly and efficiently. 2 But that kind of representation is expensive. A larger swath of litigation exists in which the contestants lack wealth, insurance is absent, and public funding is not available. Some of our most essential rights – those involving families, homes, and livelihoods – are the least protected. Veterans languish for months before their disability, pension, and educational benefits arrive. As a result of the recent financial crisis, lower- and middle-income homeowners and tenants face foreclosure and eviction. Ever-increasing numbers of consumers and small businesses have filed for bankruptcy. And few can afford a lawyer to guide them through these crises.

Nearly six million Texans qualify for legal aid. Yet our state’s legal aid programs meet but 20% of the needs of indigent Texans, forcing many to go it alone in our courts. In South Texas, 2.6 million people qualify for legal aid. That means that there are 21,000 potential clients for each lawyer employed by the region’s main legal aid office.

It is clear to me, then, that we must fund our state’s legal aid programs.

From the Houston Chronicle: A view from inside a Harris County grand jury - The state's new selection process for grand juries did, indeed, yield a diverse, well-qualified group.

A positive evaluation of one of the criminal justice reforms made in the 84th session of the Texas Legislature.

- Click here for the article.

. . . Judges know that finding 12 grand jurors with diverse backgrounds who could devote two days a week, four to six hours a day for three months is no easy task. Given a larger pool of citizens and thorough questioning, judges are now better able to select a grand jury panel with the qualifications and the diversity that lawmakers and concerned citizens desired.

The grand jury I served on was quite diverse, consisting of more than 40 minorities: African American, Hispanic, and Asian American. 25 percent were under 30 years of age, 40 percent were female, and only 16 percent were retired. Every member of our grand jury showed no hesitation to speak up, to ask questions and to argue his or her side of an issue, no matter how controversial or emotional the cases were.

The new selection process and the outcome the Legislature aimed for worked well with our grand jury. I believe a big part of that success can be attributed to our judge, who spent quite a bit of time during our first meeting questioning prospective grand jurors to determine if there would be obstacles to their devoting the amount of time required to serve effectively. Out of the 12 jurors selected to serve on a grand jury, the law requires that nine must be present to hear cases and to vote to indict or not. Therefore, on any given day, three members of the panel can call in absent for personal or work-related reasons. Occasionally, our jury was delayed because a member arrived late due to business or personal reasons. During that time, no cases could be presented until the required number of jurors was present. Generally, we heard between 80 to 100 cases a day. Therefore, delays or too many absent jurors can contribute to a backlog of cases - a delay in justice.

From The Monitor: EDITORIAL: New federal courthouse needed in McAllen

For our look at the dual judiciary:

- Click here for the article,

Several local, state and federal officials have been on a worthy campaign lately to land McAllen a new federal courthouse in the upcoming years.

The current downtown facility — in the iconic Bentsen Tower, which houses the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas — no longer meets the demands of our growing region, especially with the explosion in immigration-related criminal cases that these federal courts and judges have had to take on these past couple of years.

In addition, the current leased facility is privately owned and has very expensive monthly rates, as well as costly overhead for any improvements or renovations, we’re told.
All parties that we have spoken with regarding this building — from lawyers to lawmakers to judges to elected officials — agree it would be better off to start fresh and construct a new federal building in McAllen that meets the specifications of the courts’ high case loads and security demands and budget rather than to continue operating at the old Bentsen Tower.

Therefore we are encouraged by recent events that appear to indicate that a new federal courthouse could be in our future.

This came about after U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and others at the congressional level persuaded U.S. Judge D. Brooks Smith, who is chairman of the Committee on Space and Facilities for the U.S. Judicial Conference, to last month come to McAllen to visit the current facility for himself. Any new federal courthouse project must go through Judge Smith’s committee so getting him here — and the fact that he had enough interest in our area to agree to come — was key to seriously starting this process.

Then a few weeks after Smith’s June 3 visit, it was announced that a feasibility study has been recommended to assess the need for a new federal courthouse here.

KXAN: Gov. Abbott appoints, then pushes out acupuncture board member

The appointment process ain't always easy.

Who knew we had a Texas Board of Acupuncture Examiners.

- Click here for the article.

Gov. Greg Abbott thought twice after appointing a leader of a health care board because of concerns about the doctor’s history.

On May 12, Gov. Abbott sent out a press release detailing the appointment of Dr. Daniel Brudnak to the Texas Board of Acupuncture Examiners.

Dr. Dan Brudnak of Gorman is a private practice family medicine and acupuncture physician. He’s a fellow and diplomat of the American Academy of Family Practice and diplomat of the American Board of Medical Acupuncture.

On June 21, he resigned after details emerged from his past.

In 2011, the State Medical Board cited him for inappropriately prescribing stimulants and not keeping appropriate records.

The governor’s Press Secretary John Wittman said, “After our office was made aware of the seriousness of these violations, Dr. Brudnak tendered his resignation and we accepted it.”

In his letter of resignation, Dr. Brudnak mentioned his missteps.

From the UK Indepedent: Texas governor Greg Abbott ‘secretly’ proposes rule requiring burial and cremation of aborted fetuses - The governor will bypass state legislation to implement the rule

A twist on the rule making process.

- Click here for the article.

Only days after reproductive rights advocates celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a law that would have shuttered the vast majority of abortion clinics in Texas, Gov Greg Abbott quietly proposed new rules that would require aborted foetuses to be buried or cremated.

Mr Abbott published the proposal 1 July to be available for public comment for 30 days. Following that period, the new rules could easily be implemented, bypassing a vote by state legislators.

“Governor Abbott believes human and foetal remains should not be treated like medical waste, and the proposed rule changes affirms the value and dignity of all life,” the governor’s spokesperson, Ciara Matthews, told theAssociated Press.

In Texas, state agencies can implement new rules without receiving formal approval from lawmakers. Although, it is unusual for governors to propose the rule themselves, but agency staff. Along with his appointed director of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Mr Abbott proposed the new rules without formal review period with the agency.

Abortion rights advocates see the move as yet another effort by the anti-abortion governor to make abortion inaccessible for Texas women, and the new rules would bring non-medical ceremonial, non-medical processes into medical regulation.

“I think the biggest point is you have [a state] agency, through the governor’s fiat, propose his own idea of tradition and ceremony into a space where it doesn’t belong,” legal counsel for NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Blake Rocap told The Independent.

From the Texas Tribune: Latino Voters Sue to Bolster Influence on Electing Judges

For our look at civil rights, elections, and the judiciary - among other things.

Should Texas' top courts be elected in single member districts?

- Click here for the article.

The state’s most powerful courts don’t exactly resemble the population outside of their chambers.

Though Latinos make up more than a quarter of the state’s voting-age population, just one — Justice Eva Guzman — sits on the nine-member Texas Supreme Court. The same goes for the nine-member Court of Criminal Appeals, where Judge Elsa Alcalapresides.
Seeking to bolster their chronically sparse representation, seven Latino voters are suing Texas, arguing that its longtime method of electing statewide judges dilutes the voting power of a rapidly growing racial group.

“This is a very important case,” said Jose Garza, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last week in a U.S. district court in Corpus Christi. “Latino voters don’t have a say in who gets elected to the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals.”

For more than a century, judges on the state’s high courts run have run in at-large partisan elections, vying for votes across the state. They serve staggered six-year terms. In a bright-red state like Texas, that voting system yields staunchly Republican courts, limiting election drama to primary races.

The plaintiffs — six voters in Nueces County and one in El Paso — argue that the current system prevents Latinos from choosing the candidates they prefer. Latino candidates would more consistently nab places on the courts, they suggest, if Texas carved up the courts geographically, creating single-member districts.

From the Texas Tribune: Paxton Opinion Slams Schools' Transgender Policies

Doing what he is constitutionally authorized to do.

A great example of conflict between the three levels of government.

- Click here for the article.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday issued an opinion saying the Fort Worth school superintendent who made headlines for formulating guidelines to accommodate transgender students exceeded his authority. Paxton also said that a portion of the guidelines instructing district employees not to out transgender students to their parents might violate state law.

Citing a part of the Texas education code, Paxton wrote that school district boards of trustees — not superintendents — are required to adopt policies while superintendents can only implement those policies “by developing administrative regulations.”
Attorney general opinions are not legally binding, and Paxton's interpretation has no direct legal impact on the Fort Worth district.

The Fort Worth ISD guidelines are in line with a directive from the Obama administration — issued after the guidelines were adopted — that instructed school districts across the country to ensure that transgender students are not discriminated against. Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick requested the opinion three weeks after calling for Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Kent Scribner’s resignation.

From SA Current: Governor's Office is Clearly Not Happy About Bush's Handling of the Alamo

Tensions within the plural executive.

- Click here for the article.

One of the Texas GOP's rising stars — a Bush, no less — is taking heat for settling a battle over thousands of Alamo artifacts with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.  Last Friday, the Associated Press reported that the Texas General Land Office resolved a lawsuit with the Daughters of the Republic over a vast collection of history: approximately 38,000 books and relics. GLO also agreed to pay $200,000 in attorneys fees to the Daughters as part of the settlement.

GLO Commissioner George P. Bush, who has been heralded as a promising politician since winning elected office in November 2014, fired the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who managed the shrine for 110 years, as custodians of the Alamo a few months after he took office in 2015. Days later, the Daughters sued the GLO.

An internal memo obtained by the Houston Chronicle this week shows that Governor Greg Abbott's chief of staff Daniel Hodge is not happy with the settlement reached by Bush's office, calling it "regrettable" and "avoidable."

"Had the General Land Office more vigorously defended the State's interests in this matter, the agency would not have found itself in a position in which the (Daughters of the Republic of Texas) can demand this settlement," Hodge wrote in the memo obtained by the Chronicle.

Hodge goes on to say that the only reason Abbott approved the settlement was out of deference for the "independent constitutional officeholder requesting it."

Since Bush took office, he has been embroiled in all things Alamo. The City of San Antonio and the GLO have teamed up to come up with a new master plan for the historic site that could change the landscape surrounding Alamo. The GLO and the city left the Daughters of the Republic of Texas out of the advisory board coming up with the plan.
However, Bush's problems have extended beyond his battle for the Alamo.

From the Texas Tribune: It’s Joe Straus’ House — at least until 2019 — after Tuesday’s Texas GOP primaries

Straus maybe have wrapped up another term as speaker last March.

- Click here for the article.

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and his allies outpaced expectations in Tuesday’s primary, sustaining only scattered losses while holding onto most of their seats and picking up a couple of new ones.

Fears that populist winds and the outsider candidacies of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz would somehow turn the higher turnout of a presidential year into a bad thing for Team Straus proved just that — unfounded angst.

While off-year elections and, in any year, GOP runoffs may be hazardous to the speaker’s side, this year’s primary produced very decent results for Straus.

Oh, yes, he struck out at unseating the most vociferous, irritating backbenchers in his caucus, such as Reps. Jonathan Stickland of Bedford, Matt Rinaldi of Irving and Tony Tinderholt of Fort Worth. Impressively, Stickland and Tinderholt cruised to re-election each with 58 percent of the vote; and Rinaldi, with more than 53 percent.

From the Texas Tribune: Charges Dismissed Against Anti-Abortion Activists Who Made Video

Lot's to chew on here.

Activists on the left and the right should celebrate the decisions since it makes it easier for them to shine a spotlight on the inner workings of organizations they think necessary.

But there are concerns that the elected district attorney felt political heat due to the coming election, which led to the decision to drop the charges.

- Click here for the article.

Criminal charges against the anti-abortion activists behind undercover recordings of a Houston Planned Parenthood facility were dismissed Tuesday.

David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the videographers who infiltrated Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, had been charged with tampering with a governmental record, a second-degree felony charge that carries up to 20 years in prison. A court clerk confirmed that the Harris County district attorney's office filed the motion to dismiss the case against Daleiden and Merritt.

Harris County DA Devon Anderson said in a statement that Texas limits what can be investigated after a grand jury term gets extended, which happened in this case.
"In light of this and after careful research and review, this office dismissed the indictments," Anderson said.

Daleiden and Merritt were accused of using fake California driver’s licenses to enter the Planned Parenthood facilities where they recorded staff discussing the costs of providing fetal tissue for research.

The tampering with a governmental record count was the last remaining charge against the activists. A Harris County judge in June tossed a second charge against Daleiden — a misdemeanor charge for offering to sell or buy fetal tissue — because of a technical problem with the indictment filed by prosecutors.

Daleiden’s team had asked a judge to dismiss his indictments, alleging they were a result of improper proceedings by prosecutors and that the grand jury — originally asked to investigate Planned Parenthood, not the videographers — exceeded its authority.

From the Texas Tribune: Texas Cemetery Scraps "Whites Only" Policy

Seems about time. Enforcing equal protection gets tricky when it affects the private sector.

Note the use of the courts as a remedy.

- Click here for the article.

After drawing ire for its alleged “whites only” policy, a Texas cemetery conceded its refusal to bury Latino residents is discriminatory and violates federal and state law.

Lawyers for the cemetery association, which oversees the San Domingo Cemetery in the tiny, rural town of Normanna, admitted defeat in court on Friday as part of a lawsuit filed after Dorothy Barrera was unable to bury the ashes of her husband, who was Latino, in the cemetery.

As noted in a court filing, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund accepted the cemetery association’s “offer of judgment,” proposing that a judge should enter a ruling against them for the policy and should declare their “rule of discriminating” based on race and national origin as “void.”

MALDEF brought the lawsuit after Barrera found herself at the center of a modern-day desegregation fight. After the death of her husband of more than 40 years, Barrera, who is white, realized she would be unable to be buried beside her husband Pedro because of the cemetery’s whites only policy.

Trib + Water

When we walk through Article 3 of the Texas Constitution I like to note the inclusion of large number of bonds approved by the voters for water development projects. The availability of water has been a dominant issue for much of Texas' history.

As a way to underscore the range of issues the state faces concerning water, you might want to peruse through the various items on the subject the Texas Tribune has posted over time.

- Click here for the article.

From the Texas Tribune: Tensions Erupt at Texas Democrats' Convention Breakfast

For our ongoing look at political parties in Texas. Unity ain't easy.

- Click here for the article.

A contentious scene unraveled here Tuesday morning at a meeting of Texas delegates after one criticized Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and a favorite of Lone Star State Democrats.

The tension erupted while delegates supporting Bernie Sanders, Clinton's primary rival, were arrayed on the stage at a daily breakfast convened by the state delegation. It was meant to be a show of unity, with one of them, Russell Lytle of Denton, speaking hopefully of dialogue with Clinton supporters.

However, several minutes into his remarks, Lytle took a sharp turn against Clinton in what other Sanders delegates later described as an isolated incident.

"We want to be clear," Lytle said. "We are currently condemning our current presumptive nominee."

That touched off an angry reaction from some in the crowd, sparking loud boos and bringing Clinton backers to their feet. One of the people who rose pointed his finger at the stage.

"Stop this nonsense!" he said. "You need to grow up!"

Former Land Commissioner Garry Mauro, the Clinton campaign's top representative in Texas, took the microphone and tried to calm the room. He asked Clinton loyalists like himself to remember what it was like in 2008, when they arrived at the Democratic National Convention facing pressure to support presumptive nominee Barack Obama.

Texas Democrats, Mauro said, need to put their egos aside as they welcome new people to the party. That did not go over well with some Clinton supporters in the crowd, who said Sanders had lost and it was his backers who need to put aside their egos.

From the DMN: Dallas County property values see record increases. Will officials cut taxes or keep the cash?

Building of the post on property taxes below:

- Click here for the article.

Property values rose more than 10 percent across Dallas County this year, the highest jump in at least two decades.

The increases mean steeper tax bills for many property owners and unexpected jackpots for local governments, prompting debate among officials over whether to keep the cash or cut tax rates.

"Our middle class didn't get raises like this, and they can't afford these increases,"

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Tuesday. "We can always find a way to spend a windfall, but it's best in this economy for us to give people back their money."

Jenkins cited a Dallas Morning News analysis that found the rising preliminary property values increased disproportionately for middle-class homeowners. It's unclear whether that disparity remained after property owners' protests ended and many won reductions. The official numbers were released this week, though some properties remain in dispute.
The potential tax windfall far exceeds the budget predictions of many government entities, such as the county, the city of Dallas and Parkland Memorial Hospital. Dallas Independent School District, meanwhile, anticipated a greater increase.

"It's the largest increase we've seen since I have records," said Ryan Brown, the county budget director. The records date to 1989. The closest the county has come was in 2008, when values rose 9.8 percent before plunging during the recession.

This year, the average home valued at $149,000 would cost nearly $400 in county taxes alone -- an increase of $37 from last year.

Government bodies across the county will set tax rates in September.

From Watchdog: Commercial lawsuits blow back on Texas taxpayers

For our discussion of local government and taxes - who bears the burden of property taxes in the state?

- Click here for the article.

Lawsuits over commercial property appraisals are on the rise in Texas, and taxpayers are footing an ever-bigger legal bill.

In Austin, 413 lawsuits are pending against the Travis Central Appraisal District. Property owners are contesting $11.3 billion in values.

Of the nearly 4,000 cases tried in the past 12 years, commercial property owners won an overall 7.5 percent reduction in tax exposure.

In San Antonio, companies sued Bexar County over $19.4 billion in appraisal disputes last year, more than double the amount litigated in 2012. Thus far, lawsuits shaved the valuations to $17.5 billion.

The rising tide of lawsuits comes as large commercial entities contest double-digit increases in property values that produce correspondingly bigger tax bills.

From the Texas Tribune: Texas vs. the Feds — A Look at the Lawsuits

Add this to our look at federalism.

- Click here for the article.

Since President Obama took office in 2009, the state of Texas has sued his administration at least 42 times, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of state data — a point of pride for the state's Republican leaders.

Former Texas Attorney General and current Gov. Greg Abbott filed 31 of those lawsuits. His successor, Ken Paxton, has mounted 11 such legal challenges since taking office in 2015. Paxton's office has provided cost estimates for 39 of those cases, which as of mid-2016 totaled about $5.9 million.

So what did Texans get for their money? So far, there have been seven cases in the win column for the state, with 12 losses, nine cases withdrawn and 14 pending. (Scroll down to see details on each case.)

In the state's most recent win, a split U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down Obama's executive order that would have provided relief from deportation to millions of people. But the outcome of that case could change after a new justice is appointed. Texas' most recent loss came in June, when a district judge in Dallas dismissed a lawsuit over the resettlement of Syrian refugees here. When the ruling came out, Paxton said that his office was "considering our options moving forward."

Many high-profile cases are still making their way through the legal process, including lawsuits over new limits on smog, directives on bathroom use in public schools and climate change policy.

From the DMN: Speaker Joe Straus, never a conservative favorite, faces fewer haters at Texas GOP convention

For our look at the Texas House.

- Click here for the article.

House Speaker Joe Straus took less heat. Some brickbats aimed at him sailed wide of the mark. He stuck to his script as an old-style fiscal conservative.

Then he got the heck out of Dallas — mostly unscathed.

The biennial gathering of the Republican Party of Texas has become a minefield for Straus.

Ironically, the San Antonio businessman hails from one of the modern GOP’s oldest families of activists.

In recent years, though, he has become a pariah among many staunch conservatives. Business-oriented and pragmatic, he’s a soft-spoken aberration as smash-mouth politics and culture war tactics hold sway in an increasingly dominant state GOP.

This past week, Straus absorbed a few hits as the party debated its platform and delegates re-elected state GOP chairman Tom Mechler, whom the speaker supported.

Former Harris County Republican chairman Jared Woodfill, Mechler’s unsuccessful challenger, blasted Straus in his campaign literature, accusing him of helping squelch legislation last year that would’ve hurt public employee unions and helping county clerks and justices of the peace resist same-sex marriage on religious grounds.

DNC Rules Committee Meeting

For 2306 today

- Major Ken Paxton donor paying $3.5 million settlement after Medicaid fraud probe.

A North Texas company whose president gave state Attorney General Ken Paxton $100,000 last year to fight his felony fraud indictments will pay $3.5 million after allegations it skimped on services to Medicaid and Medicare patients while over-billing the government.

A former employee who brought the original lawsuit against Preferred Imaging LLC, a medical diagnostic company headed by James H. Webb of Frisco, alleged the company was performing services that require the oversight of a supervising doctor without one on-site.

The story link to the part of the Texas Penal Code that cover bribery: click here for it.

- As the GOP Convention Begins, Ohio Is Purging Tens of Thousands of Democratic Voters.

Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted says more than 2 million voters have been purged since 2011. From 2011 to 2014, 846,000 were struck for infrequent voting and 480,000 for moving. “Of the 2 million purged, 1.2 million are questionable purges,” says State Representative Kathleen Clyde, a Democrat from Kent who has led opposition to the purge. “We shouldn’t be playing games with people’s voter registrations and fundamental right to vote. Instead we should be trying to get them to the polls.”

The purge works like this: If a voter misses an election, Ohio sends them a letter making sure their address is still current. If the voter doesn’t respond, Ohio puts them on an inactive list, and if the voter doesn’t vote in the next two elections they are removed from the rolls.

- Wade Emmert: Abbott's police protection act is a well-intentioned slippery slope.

Gov. Greg Abbott is the latest state leader to propose extending hate crime protections to law enforcement officers in the wake of the recent police shootings. Louisiana did it earlier this year, and similar proposals are being considered in Massachusetts, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

The desire to provide greater protections to police officers is a perfectly understandable response to a seeming epidemic of violence against police. But we should objectively evaluate legislation crafted as a response to a horrible tragedy.

With the recent slayings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, there is no better time to reinforce the public bond between the men and women who put their lives at risk each day and the citizens they protect.

Nevertheless, however well-intentioned the proposal, designating these crimes as "hate crimes" does not actually provide police officers with any greater protection than current law.

- Judge Orders Voter ID Fix for Texas House Runoff.

Voters in Bexar County will be the first to cast their ballots under relaxed regulations after a federal appeals court ruled that Texas’ strict voter identification law discriminated against minority voters.

Signing off on a deal struck by Texas and opponents of its embattled law, a federal judge on Saturday gave voters new options for identifying themselves at the polls.

The order from U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos applies only to the special runoff election for Texas House District 120, which includes San Antonio's east side. But it could foreshadow broader efforts to redraw the 2011 Texas law — Senate Bill 14 — to comport with the Voting Rights Act.

- Texas budget still works despite economic turbulence, comptroller says.

The slumping energy industry is dampening Texas’ economy just as lawmakers face a new obligation to pour billions of dollars into transportation, the state comptroller told legislative leaders Monday.

But Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar didn’t sound an alarm in his presentation to the Legislative Budget Board, which is headed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

The state still has a cushion of money that lawmakers left unspent when they last met in 2015, and it’s in a better position than a number of other energy states, Hegar said.

“The budget continues to work,” he said after his presentation. “If you look at us compared to others, we should be very thrilled we are not in a recession.

From the Monkey Cage: Can Bernie Sanders change how the Democratic Party chooses presidential nominees? Here’s what you need to know.

An account of the process the DNC went through to alter their rules of procedure.

- Click here for the article.

The Democratic National Convention’s rules committee convened Saturday to consider the report that it will present on the convention’s opening day in Philadelphia. The meeting was dominated by the controversial issues of the lengthy Democratic primary campaign: the role of superdelegates, the role of caucuses and, in general, how open the Democratic nomination process should be.

Here is what happened at the committee meeting:

After a series of uncontentious votes and a short recess, the committee began to consider amendments to the charter of the party and the rules of the nomination process. This began with amendments affecting the influence of superdelegates — including an amendment to abolish them and another to reduce their number. All of these amendments failed by a ratio of about 3 to 2.

At that point, committee members from both the Clinton and Sanders teams called for a recess. The ensuing three-hour break produced a unity amendment that created a post-convention commission to examine not only the superdelegate process but the other perceived shortcomings of the process. This “Unity Reform Commission” would be the successor to the Democratic Change Commission of eight years ago.

If the full convention approves the rules committee’s report on Monday, here is what will happen:

1 - No more than 60 days after the election of the next chair of the Democratic National Committee early next year, the chair will establish the Unity Reform Commission (URC).

2 - Its membership will include Clinton surrogate Jennifer O’Malley Dillon as commission chairwoman and Sanders proxy Larry Cohen as vice chair. Clinton will fill nine additional slots, and Sanders will fill seven. The next DNC chair will select three members.

3 - The URC will meet during 2017 with the goal of producing a set of rules recommendations for the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee by Jan. 1, 2018.

4 - The normal procedure is for the Rules and Bylaws Committee to consider those recommendations before sending them — potentially in an amended form — to the full Democratic National Committee for a final vote. That procedure remains intact. However, the URC retains the ability to place its recommendations before the full DNC if the Rules and Bylaws Committee “fails to substantially adopt” any of them.

From Vox: Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigns as Democratic National Committee chair

For our look at the organization of political parties.

- Click here for the article.

On the eve of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz abruptly announced that she will resign her position after the convention as part of the fallout from emails leaked from the DNCon Friday night. Donna Brazile, the veteran Democratic operative and well-known television commentator, will serve as interim chair.

Wasserman Schultz says that she plans to "address our delegates about the stakes involved in this election not only for Democrats, but for all Americans," and then step aside. Just a few hours earlier the plan had been for Schultz, somewhat anomalously, to not speak at her own party’s convention. Now she is out from the DNC entirely, a key concession to Bernie Sanders and to his supporters and allies as Hillary Clinton tries to put a united Democratic Party behind her for the fall election.

Sanders called it the "right decision" in a statement.

As Vox’s Tim Lee noted, none of the emails contained a smoking gun demonstrating that the primary was rigged for Clinton — or even that DNC officials set in motion any of the plans to derail Sanders’s candidacy.

But the emails do strongly suggest that some DNC leaders personally regarded Sanders as an outside threat and that they wanted him to lose.

More on the 85th session

- Open Carry, Funding Likely Police Issues Next Session.

Within hours of the recent ambush killings of five Dallas police officers — and again 10 days later, when three Baton Rouge officers were killed — messages of respect and support for law enforcement coursed through the nation's social media, filled the airwaves and prompted countless press releases.

As politicians nationwide rushed to reiterate their support for police, Texas elected officials figured prominently in the calls for a greater societal embrace of officers and more protections for first responders who perform some of the toughest jobs.

"As Texans and Americans mourn the loss of our men and women in uniform, we must continue to remember that police officers put their lives on the line every day to ensure our safety and our freedoms," Abbott said in a statement a day after the July 7 Dallas shooting.

But while grateful for the rhetoric, law enforcement groups have seen some disconnect between the professions of support and the track record of Texas elected officials in listening to their concerns.

Most notable was the 2015 legislative session, when lawmakers — including Patrick and Abbott — enthusiastically approved the open carry of handguns by licensed Texans despite opposition by many of the state's law enforcement officials.

As the 2017 legislative session approaches, law enforcement groups say they'll be asking lawmakers to consider revising the open carry law, as well as looking at restoring funding for programs that help police do their jobs. They say they'll focus on bread and butter issues like funding officer training and maintaining retirement and death benefits.

- In School Choice Fight, a Fresh Force Emerges.

An ambitious new player has emerged in the controversial effort to use taxpayer dollars to help Texas parents send their kids to private or religious schools.

Texans for Education Opportunity, whichlaunched in May, supports all forms of “school choice,” including charters and traditional public schools, said Executive Director Randan Steinhauser, an Austin-based school choice activist and public relations consultant who co-founded the nonprofit advocacy organization.

But she said the group’s main goal is to get Texas lawmakers to create “education savings accounts” — a program under which the state would dole out taxpayer money directly to parents via debit card to cover approved education-related expenses, like private school tuition, tutors or homeschooling materials. About a half-dozen other Republican-dominated states, including Florida and Arizona, have already created such programs, although most of them target specific student populations, including disabled and low-income students. (Nevada is an exception, offering assistance to all students.)

Literature provided by Texans for Education Opportunity, which appears to be the first statewide organization focused solely on school choice, suggests the state offer up to $7,800 for any student pursuing an alternative schooling route. That is about 90 percent of what the state provides on average to traditional school districts per student for annual maintenance and operations, the pamphlet says.

Cruz is in some hot water.

- After Cleveland Speech, Cruz Faces Isolation in Texas GOP.

After upending Donald Trump's Republican National Convention with his conspicuous non-endorsement of the presidential nominee, Cruz is confronting isolation and unease in his home-state GOP, which has largely been moving toward Trump even as he continues to withhold support.

"The isolation is increasingly rapid, and it seems to me only the most fervent Ted Cruz supporters are hanging on," said Carl Tepper, former president of the Texas Republican County Chairmen's Association and an at-large delegate from Lubbock.

More than 36 hours after Cruz left the stage in Cleveland amid thunderous boos, very few prominent Texas Republicans were rushing to his defense. In fact, more could be seen and heard bluntly voicing disagreement with the attitude Cruz took toward his party's presidential nominee.

"It was just painful. It was not what I would consider what we needed at a convention," state Sen. Charles Perry of Lubbock said in an interview Thursday on Lubbock radio.

- Trump Says He Plans to Launch Super PAC Against Ted Cruz.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says he will probably create a super PAC with the aim of hobbling the political future of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

Trump, a mercurial businessman whose promises have often been subject to deep skepticism, confirmed the plan in an interview set to air Sunday on NBC. He was asked about a report Friday that said he wants to set up a super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, to go after Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, two former Republican primary opponents who have not endorsed him.

Analysis: The Long and Winding Road to the Texas Ethics Commission

A look at the convoluted appointment process for the Texas agency responsible for overseeing campaign finance, the regulation of lobbyists, and a number of other items.

- Click here for the article.

The Texas Ethics Commission is a dog that doesn’t bite.

It’s designed that way. 

It’s the regulatory agency in charge of politicians and legislators. You think those folks want to give it real teeth?

That said, it’s also a strange place when it comes to appointing commissioners.

Most executive branch agencies in Texas are overseen by elected officials or appointed boards and executives. The elected leaders are your own fault, assuming you’re a voter. The appointments are mostly made by the governor, with a handful assigned to the lieutenant governor or the speaker of the House.

The eight-member ethics panel, however, is unique.

The governor appoints four members, and the lite guv and the speaker appoint two each. But wait, there’s more. Each of them chooses from lists of potential appointees provided by legislators in the House and the Senate. Not done with the rules yet: Those lists are split by party.

In practice, that means the political caucuses in the House and Senate have the first cull when it comes to who serves on the state commission that regulates the political activities of candidates, officeholders and lobbyists.

The story links to anther which looks at the current backlog of appointees to executive agencies.

- More than 300 Gubernatorial Appointees Have Expired Terms.

Is Donald Trump really a conservative?

For this week's 2305 written assignment.

It's a commonly asked question - especially by real conservatives. There are a variety of ways to approach the question, but one way is to ask whether the positions Trump outlined in his acceptance speech at the convention mirror those in the official party platform,

- Click here for the text of the speech.
- Click here for the platform.

For more:

- On The Issues: Donald Trump.
- The Atlantic: Donald Trump Is No Conservative.
- New York Magazine: Donald Trump Jr. and the Future of Conservative Populism.
- The National Review: Trump’s Speech Makes It Official: It’s Democrat v. Democrat in 2016.

Catching up with the Texas Association of Business

Recent stories involving Texas' most powerful interest group:

- The Texas Association of Business Files Suit in Federal Court Against the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

- Lawmakers: Decriminalizing marijuana could be good for Texas business.

- DOL Overstepped Its Authority With Fiduciary Rule, Chamber Tells Judge.

- Bill Hammond, guest columnist: Quality Pre-K is essential for tomorrow’s Texas workforce.

From Vox: How Republicans went from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump, in 13 maps

Highly recommended for both 2305 and 2306.

- Click here for it.

Here's one of the images: How Republicans gave up on reforming the South

More on the agenda of the 85th Texas legislative session

I just typed "85th session" into Goggle's search engine, and here's what came up:

- TACC: On the Road to the 85th Legislative Session.
- Texas Smart on Crime Coalition Legislative Agenda for the 85th Legislative Session.
- Texas Higher Education Board: Preliminary LegislativeRecommendations to the85th Texas Legislature.- Texas Family Council: 85th Session Legislative Agenda.
- Texas Association of Counties: Preparing for the 85th Legislative Session.

From the Texas Tribune: Texas Voter ID Law Violates Voting Rights Act, Court Rules

We discussed this in a lecture class today. Nice to see it in the news.

- Click here for the article.

Texas’ voter identification law violates the U.S. law prohibiting racial discrimination in elections, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed previous rulings that the 2011 voter ID law — which stipulates the types of photo identification election officials can and cannot accept at the polls — does not comply with the Voting Rights Act.

The full court's ruling delivered the strongest blow yet to what is widely viewed as the nation’s strictest voter ID law. Under the law, most citizens (some, like people with disabilities, can be exempt) must show one of a handful of types of identification before their ballots can be counted: a state driver's license or ID card, a concealed handgun license, a U.S. passport, a military ID card, or a U.S citizenship certificate with a photo.

Texas’ losing streak continued in its efforts to defend its law, fighting challenges from the U.S. Department of Justice, minority groups and voting rights advocates.

- Click here for the decision.

For more:

Courthouse News Service: Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Controversial Texas Voter ID Law.
Ballotpedia: Voter identification laws by state.
NCSL: VOTER IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS | VOTER ID LAWS.
Frontline: Why Voter ID Laws Aren't Really about Fraud.

From the Texas Tribune: Analysis: For Some Texas Republicans, Useful Distractions Back Home

More on the divisions between the state and national Republican parties.

- Click here for the article.

This year’s general election ballot doesn’t offer many shady spots to a Republican trying to escape the presidential campaign’s glare. But for those who want to stay out of that national conversation — the speaker of the Texas House, to name one — there are a handful of races at home that offer plausible excuses.

Joe Straus told the Texas delegates at the Republican convention in Cleveland that he’ll be busy this election cycle helping a half-dozen Republican incumbents who have real challenges in the general election.

It’s a dodge. A thin dodge.

There are only a handful of races up in the air in Texas, if by up in the air you mean “yeah, maybe.”

But Straus talked local in Cleveland when he was ducking reporters’ questions about whether he was endorsing Donald Trump. “I know there’s some tension over the presidential nomination, but not everything that happens at a nominating convention is about the top of the ticket," he said. “There are a whole lot of people here working where I am on down-ballot races.”

Straus did say he won’t be supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton, but didn’t say he would vote for Trump.

No matter how the presidential race goes in Texas, few of the candidates running down-ticket races have much to worry about. Officeholders left voters with district maps that take away voters' real choices over who serves in legislative or congressional office.

From the National Review: Trump leaves Texas Republicans morose and anxious.

Texas is not excited about their candidate, or what he might mean for the future of the party's coalition.

- Click here for the article.

“We are in trouble,” says Artemio “Temo” Muniz, chairman of the Texas chapter of the Federation of Hispanic Republicans. Muniz is the evidence for both sides of the immigration debate: He is the son of an illegal alien, a goat-herder from near San Luis Potosi and a beneficiary of the 1986 Reagan amnesty. He probably took a job or two that a native-born American might otherwise have taken, but he also created a lot of them, having started a mattress-manufacturing company that is now one of the largest home-furnishings businesses in the region, employing about 90 people. Muniz works for the family business and has just finished law school. When I ask about the lack of Hispanic participants in the convention, he says my observations are accurate. “The chairman says he wants a convention that looks like Texas, but we have a long way to go to get there.” (The Texas GOP leadership is not exactly covered up with Hispanic officers.) There are a number of problems facing Republicans looking to court Hispanic voters, starting with the fact that the target demographic is about 70 percent Mexican American while the Hispanic-outreach consultants are about 100 percent Cuban American. South Texas isn’t South Florida, but then South Florida isn’t South Florida anymore, either: Republicans lost the Cuban-American vote in the 2012 presidential race for the first time.

From the Washington Post: George Will: With Texas, a wall too high for the GOP?

A perennial topic - will Texas ever turn blue?

- Click here for the article.

Political conventions are echo chambers designed to generate feelings of invincibility, sending forth the party faithful with a spring in their steps and hope in their hearts. Who would want to be a wet blanket at such moveable feasts?

Steve Munisteri would. Although he calls himself “the eternal optimist,” he respects reality, which nowadays is not conducive to conservatives’ cheerfulness. He served as chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 2010 to 2015 because he discerned “a seismic shift in demographics” that meant his state could “turn Democratic sooner than most people thought.”

The fact that Republicans have won every Texas statewide office since 1994 — the longest such streak in the nation — gives them, he says, “a false sense of security.” In 2000, Republican candidates at the top of the ticket — in statewide races — averaged about 60 percent of the vote. By 2008, they averaged less than 53 percent. And Republican down-ballot winners averaged slightly over 51 percent.

Texas is not wide open spaces filled with cattle and cotton fields. Actually, it is 84.7 percent urban, making it the 15th most urban state. It has four of the nation’s 11 largest cities — Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin. Texas’ growth is in its cities, where Republicans are doing worst.

Dallas has gone from solidly Republican to solidly Democratic. A recent poll showed Harris County (Houston), which is 69 percent minority, with a majority identifying as Democrats. The San Antonio metropolitan area is about three-quarters minority. Travis County (Austin, seat of the state government, the flagship state university and a burgeoning tech economy attracting young people) voted 60.1 percent for Barack Obama in 2012.

Parties in Texas

For review
|
- Texas Democrats.
- Texas Parties.
- Texas Republicans.

The 2016 Republican Party Platform

- Click here for it.

Critics call it exceptionally extreme.

- LA Times.
- The New Republic.
- The New York Times.