Category Archives for Texas Legislature

[Citation Needed]

Legislation and policy-making are usually complicated things that can’t be defined in simplistic, single-word descriptions. But it’s possible when discussing HB 911 by state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, and HB 3027 by state Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, both of which are up for hearing Monday before the Texas House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee. Here [...]

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Bill Analysis: Ten Commandments in Schools

Because of the evolving body of case law and complicated constitutional issues surrounding the posting of the Ten Commandments in public spaces, TFN Insider asked one of the nation’s top First Amendment scholars, Steven Green, to take a look at state Rep. Dan Flynn’s problematic legislation promoting the Ten Commandments in Texas schools. Here is [...]

Also posted in church and state, Ten Commandments
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What’s the Emergency?

Both the Texas House and Senate have now released initial budgets intended to cover a massive state fiscal deficit that experts have placed as high as $27 billion. Cuts outlined in those budgets could mean the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in education — one lawmaker describes the effect on public schools as [...]

Also posted in abortion, Rick Perry
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Far Right Fails in GOP Speaker Vote

A large majority of Republicans in the Texas House have rejected demands by far-right groups by indicating that they will support the re-election of Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, as House speaker. The vote in the Republican House caucus represents a major defeat for far-right pressure groups like Texas Eagle Forum and Liberty Institute (the Texas [...]

Also posted in Joe Straus
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Race-Baiting E-mails

One of the state’s right-wing extremists who has been among the most vocal in demanding the replacement of Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, as speaker of the Texas House appears to have a stunningly ignorant understanding of civil rights history. In a new e-mail commentary about the speaker’s race on Friday, Peter Morrison insists that the [...]

Also posted in Joe Straus, Peter Morrison
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Backlash Against the Right in Speaker Fight?

The fight among Texas Republicans over who should be speaker of the state House of Representatives is getting hotter. We suggested on Tuesday that over-the-top efforts by far-right pressure groups and their extremist supporters to replace Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, may well alienate other Republicans. That point was made clearer in a letter from [...]

Also posted in David Barton, Donna Garner, Joe Straus
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Far Right Overplaying Its Hand in Lege?

A new e-mail to activists shows the religious right is narrowing even further its definition of a good Republican. An e-mail from the Houston Area Pastor Council on Monday demands that Republican members of the Texas House of Representatives base their vote for Speaker this month on three main issues: abortion, same-sex marriage and gambling: [...]

Also posted in religious right
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Anti-Straus Forces Step Up Pressure

Religious-right groups are taking the highly unusual step of calling a public rally next month at the state Capitol in Austin to demand the removal of Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, as Speaker of the Texas House. ThisĀ  newest intimidation tactic comes after a weeks-long religious campaign against Straus in which Straus opponents have noted that [...]

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A ‘Christian, Conservative’ Speaker

That’s what one State Republican Executive Committee member says he — and, supposedly, other Texans — wants as the next Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. The Texas Observer reports that SREC member John Cook said the following to another committee member in a Thursday (Nov. 30) e-mail: “WE elected a house with Christian, [...]

Also posted in Joe Straus
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Elections Open Door to Radical Agendas

The Associated Press notes that the religious right is preparing to use the November elections to push a radical legislative agenda in states across the country starting in January. The religious right’s hit list includes women’s reproductive rights, embryonic stem cell research, divorce laws and equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans. The Texas Freedom [...]

Also posted in abortion, LGBT issues, marriage, religious right, stem cells
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