Tag Archives: SCOTUS

NY AG to intervene in Carpenter case

Posted on September 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Raising the stakes. New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday said she will intervene in a legal fight over Texas’ ban on abortion pills, escalating a national showdown between states that have restricted abortion access and others that are … Continue reading →

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The latest abortion news

Posted on September 7, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll start here. The Texas Senate passed new bounty hunter-style abortion legislation Wednesday night to quash mailed abortion pills, targeting a method that has slipped through the cracks of abortion bans and contributed to the slight rise in the total number of … Continue reading →

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Nobody knows what to do about the dumb Ten Commandments law

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a mess. Texas school districts must decide whether to display Ten Commandments posters in every classroom before a new law requiring them to goes into effect Monday, even as its fate remains tied up in court. A federal judge enjoined 11 school districts from displaying … Continue reading →

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Hearing set on new Congressional map

Posted on August 29, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Here we go A federal judicial panel will hear arguments beginning Oct. 1 for an injunction against the implementation of new congressional boundaries approved by the Texas Legislature. According to three lawyers who were in the El Paso courtroom Wednesday … Continue reading →

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Paxton orders other school districts to follow Ten Commandments law

Posted on August 26, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Not a surprise. Attorney General Ken Paxton instructed schools across Texas to follow the requirements of the state’s Ten Commandments display law, despite a federal court ruling that temporarily blocked the law for nearly a dozen schools last week. Paxton’s … Continue reading →

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Motion to block implementation of new map filed

Posted on August 25, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Once again, from the inbox: Today, plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) filed a preliminary injunction to block the implementation of HB 4, which further gerrymanders the Texas congressional map.  After filing a supplemental complaint in the U.S. … Continue reading →

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New legal challenge filed against redistricting map

Posted on August 24, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Fron the inbox: Today, plaintiffs supported by the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) initiated a legal challenge against the newly enacted congressional gerrymander in Texas in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, asking the court to strike … Continue reading →

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Judge blocks Ten Commandments law

Posted on August 22, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good. A federal judge in San Antonio temporarily halted a Texas law that would require public schools to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom by siding with a group of families who claimed the requirement harmed their children’s religious development. U.S. … Continue reading →

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Motion for expedited review of proposed Congressional map filed

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox, on Monday night. Today, the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF) filed a motion in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to ask the court to quickly set a hearing for a preliminary injunction that will … Continue reading →

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First Ten Commandments lawsuit heard

Posted on August 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

We are promised a ruling before September 1, the date the law would go into effect. The debate surrounding a state law mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools intensified Friday as attorneys representing 16 Texas families … Continue reading →

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Second lawsuit filed against Tarrant County over its mid-decade redistricting

Posted on August 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This one has an interesting twist. The League of Women Voters of Tarrant County and the League of United Latin American Citizens are suing Tarrant County, the county’s commissioners court and County Judge Tim O’Hare over its mid-decade districting. The … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit upholds voter ID for vote by mail

Posted on August 8, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Of course they did. A federal appeals court has upheld Texas’ requirement that potential voters must list their identification information in their application for a mail-in ballot. In Texas, voting by mail is only available for certain groups of people, … Continue reading →

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Tarrant County responds to redistricting lawsuit

Posted on August 4, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Noted for the record. Tarrant County filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by citizens claiming the county engaged in racial gerrymandering when they approved a map with new precinct boundaries on June 3. The motion argues the court … Continue reading →

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Paxton harasses NY clerk over Carpenter case

Posted on July 31, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is all for show. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton escalated a brewing conflict between Texas and New York’s abortion laws. On Monday, Paxton announced he filed legal action against New York Acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck for refusing … Continue reading →

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More women have nearly bled to death following a miscarriage thanks to the abortion ban

Posted on July 30, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Brought to you by SCOTUS and the Republican Legislature. And Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton, too. Before states banned abortion, one of the gravest outcomes of early miscarriage could easily be avoided: Doctors could offer a dilation … Continue reading →

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The latest lawsuit to go after mifepristone

Posted on July 28, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

These guys will never stop. A Galveston man is suing a California doctor for allegedly providing his girlfriend with abortion-inducing drugs, the latest effort to test Texas’ anti-abortion laws against blue states’ protections for abortion providers. Unlike other ongoing legal … Continue reading →

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Opening look at the re-redistricting effort

Posted on July 12, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

They’re coming for our districts. More than one million Houstonians could have new congressional representation as early as next year under Gov. Greg Abbott’s push to redraw the state’s political maps. Abbott has ordered the Texas Legislature into a special … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit keeps SB4 block in place

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

A bit of good news. A Texas law that would deputize state and local police to question and arrest people they suspect of being in the country illegally was blocked once again. The law would also authorize local judges to … Continue reading →

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Another lawsuit filed over the Ten Commandments law

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Keep ’em coming. Sixteen Texas families of different religious and nonreligious backgrounds filed suit in federal court today to block a new state law requiring all public elementary and secondary schools to display a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. … Continue reading →

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Another assault on mifepristone

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Jesus Christ. A North Texas man charged with capital murder this month after he allegedly slipped his girlfriend abortion-inducing medication and caused a miscarriage marks the first time a murder charge has been brought in an abortion-related case in Texas. … Continue reading →

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SCOTUS upholds Texas’ anti-porn law

Posted on June 28, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Welp. Texas’ law requiring Pornhub and other adult websites to verify users’ ages is constitutional and can remain in effect, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The case stems from a 2023 law, HB 1181, that required websites to verify … Continue reading →

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Tarrant County plaintiffs amend their complaint

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

From the Lone Star Project: Attorneys acting on behalf of an expanded list of citizen plaintiffs have amended claims against MAGA County Judge Tim O’Hare and Tarrant County Texas for the adoption of a mid-decade County Commissioners Precinct map that … Continue reading →

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The other redistricting matter

Posted on June 18, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a story from the Fort Worth Report on the redistricting trial going on in El Paso, with a focus on the effect in Tarrant County. Federal judges in El Paso are reviewing a lawsuit that alleges Texas redistricting architects … Continue reading →

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Tarrant county does mid-decade redistricting and gets sued over it

Posted on June 5, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

First there was this. The Tarrant County Commissioners Court could get a bigger conservative majority next year under a new map passed Tuesday. Republican Commissioners Manny Ramirez, Matt Krause and County Judge Tim O’Hare voted to adopt the map. Democratic … Continue reading →

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SCOTx gives Paxton another crack at Annunciation House

Posted on June 2, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Ugh. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton can move forward with his efforts to gather records from El Paso’s Annunciation House to investigate his claims that the migrant shelter network was harboring undocumented immigrants, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. “We … Continue reading →

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Trojan “abortion exceptions” bill passes

Posted on May 24, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

For better or worse. A bill clarifying when doctors can perform abortions under Texas’ near-total ban will now go to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk after the House approved the bill with wide bipartisan support. Despite some concerns raised by conservative … Continue reading →

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Long-awaited Texas redistricting trial begins

Posted on May 21, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Been waiting a long time for this one. Questions over whether Latinos had their voting power diminished in the Dallas area will be a focus of a federal trial in El Paso that begins Wednesday. U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, … Continue reading →

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Houston hospitals have done worse with the abortion ban than Dallas hospitals have

Posted on May 16, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Unacceptable. Nearly four years ago in Texas, the state’s new abortion law started getting in the way of basic miscarriage care: As women waited in hospitals cramping, fluid running down their legs, doctors told them they couldn’t empty their uterus … Continue reading →

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Spring Branch ID to appeal redistricting verdict

Posted on May 15, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

As expected. Spring Branch ISD officials plan to appeal last month’s federal ruling that the district violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by holding at-large elections, the board president said Monday night after an executive session discussion. While awaiting … Continue reading →

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Be wary of the Trump mifepristone strategy

Posted on May 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Hmmmm. On Monday, Trump’s Justice Department slotted into a long-running, right-wing effort to get the abortion drug mifepristone restricted or yanked from the market altogether. Instead of joining forces with the red states challenging the drug, though, it largely picked … Continue reading →

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Spring Branch ISD ruled to have violated the Voting Rights Act

Posted on May 1, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

And they are ordered to adopt single-member districts. A federal judge found Spring Branch ISD violated the Voting Rights Act and ordered the west Harris County district to overhaul its system so that the voices of Hispanic voters can be heard, but … Continue reading →

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It’s the Hotze Show again

Posted on April 25, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Oh, my God. For over a decade, Americans with private health insurance have enjoyed free access to dozens of types of preventive health care: cholesterol medication, prenatal care, and many types of cancer screenings, as well as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the “miracle … Continue reading →

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Just another reminder that abortion bans kill women

Posted on April 24, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

In case you needed it. Pregnant people living in states with abortion bans are almost twice as likely to die during pregnancy or soon after giving birth, a report released Wednesday found. The risk is greatest for Black women in … Continue reading →

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A win for protecting the right to travel

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Good news, but the legal fight is far from over. The state of Alabama cannot prosecute groups that help people leave the state for an abortion, a federal judge ruled late Monday. The decision — one of the first to … Continue reading →

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