Civil Rights
Texas (Kinda, Sorta) Accidentally Decriminalized Weed. Now What?
Is the Texas House Violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by Refusing to Caption Legislative Hearings?
Disability rights experts are questioning the methods Capitol staff use to determine when to fill an accommodation request.
John Woodley pushed a wheelchair through the Capitol almost every day this session, his files and laptop piled on the seat. At age 2, he developed partial deafn...Read More
I’m a Teen Activist in Texas, and I’m Tired of Being Ignored by Politicians
It is no longer acceptable for youth, especially people of color and those in the LGBTQ community, to be dismissed by our elected officials.
In an expression of dissent earlier this year, I got one of the state’s most powerful Republicans to show off an “Abolish ICE” / “Impeach Tr...Read More
Death Penalty Reform Bill Gets Watered Down to ‘Nothing’ Before Passing Senate
After passing the House, HB 1139, meant to reform how Texas decides whether a defendant is too intellectually disabled to execute, was significantly softened in Senate committee.
A House bill meant to reform Texas’ death penalty procedures for intellectually disabled defendants was amended in the Senate to the point that criminal justi...Read More
In the Texas Legislature’s Final Days, Republicans Find New Ways to Attack Voting Rights
After the death of a high-profile voter suppression bill, Senate Republicans passed two other restrictive measures this week.
A sweeping Senate bill that would have increased penalties for election-related crimes and made it harder for volunteers to help elderly and disabled voters eff...Read More
Texas Republicans Poised to Make Voting ‘Harder, Scarier and More Confusing’
SB 9’s passage out of committee Friday sets the stage for a heated debate over voting rights in the waning days of the session.
A bill raising criminal penalties for certain election-related offenses and imposing new voting restrictions cleared a major hurdle Friday, setting the stage fo...Read More
With a Bizarre Assist by Democrats, Police Groups Kill Bill to Limit Arrests for Fine-Only Offenses
A combination of incompetence and sabotage appears to have killed a police reform bill that had passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan majority.
Law enforcement’s ability to arrest Texans for crimes punishable only by fine, including traffic violations, will likely remain unchecked after House Democrat...Read More
The Texas GOP’s War of Municipal Aggression
With their approval of a bill to “protect” Confederate monuments from liberal city halls, Senate Republicans exposed the raw racial dynamics of the party’s preemption crusade.
For more than a century, a pillar of granite and marble has loomed 60 feet high in downtown Dallas, topped with a statue of a Confederate soldier. Statues of f...Read More
Four Years Later, Sandra Bland’s Arrest Continues to Sow Distrust in Law Enforcement
New reporting shows that Sandra Bland recorded her infamous 2015 arrest. Authorities never told her grieving family.
After Sandra Bland’s death in the Waller County jail became a national scandal, former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Brian Encinia struggled to ju...Read More
Immune from Justice
The Legislature appears unlikely to close a loophole that allows prosecutors to fire subordinates for refusing to illegally withhold evidence.
Eric Hillman thought the law was clear when he discovered new evidence that could help the man he was prosecuting in 2014. Then a prosecutor in the Nueces Count...Read More
