Texas | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 45
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Posted by Andrew Branca on March 25, 2015 21 Comments
Much like the South once used local and state laws to undermine the civil rights victories of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, those seeking to undermine recent 2nd Amendment civil rights victories often do so by creating a web of complex and often unlawful regulations and limitations upon the exercise of those rights. One common ruse in many states is to illegally post signs prohibiting the lawful carry of concealed firearms into a particular location. Texas, for example, allows for the lawful posting of constraints on concealed carry rights through the use of what are referred to as "30.06 signs," but the lawful use of these signs is highly limited. Texas 30.06 sign Sadly, it has become all too common for 30.06 signs to be posted where it is unlawful to do so. Someone who lawfully carries in violation of such an unlawful posting commits no criminal offense, but the posting naturally has a chilling effect on the lawful exercise of 2nd Amendment rights.  Some of the worst of these unlawful posters have been government entities. Unfortunately, to date there has been no effective means of punishing those who unlawfully post such civil rights restrictions.  Government entities have been particularly out of reach, given their presumed sovereign immunity from legal action. It is pleasing, therefore, to see Texas move towards ending such unlawful signage, as reported at the Guns.com blog, and in a manner that gives 2nd Amendment rights real teeth and punishes violators--even governmental violators--in their wallets.

Posted by Amy Miller on March 23, 2015 31 Comments
Earlier this month I wrote a lengthy but necessary breakdown of Texas' "Cop Watcher" bill. Sponsored by Dallas-area House representative Jason Villalba, HB 2918 as filed would have changed the way activists and citizen journalists are allowed to interact with police officers. Almost immediately after the bill was filed, Villalba came under fire from local and national activists who said that the bill was too restrictive and destroyed the ability for citizens to hold police accountable. Under pressure from constituents, activists, and his own colleagues, Villalba now appears amenable to amending---but not pulling---the controversial bill:
"I will not consider pulling this bill but what I will do is considerably rewrite it," the North Dallas Republican said during a taping of WFAA's Inside Texas Politics to air Sunday morning at 9:00. Villalba appeared on the program to explain House Bill 2918 that makes it a misdemeanor to photograph police within 25 feet of them. News media was excluded. During the taping, Villalba said he will reduce the distance to 15 feet but make it apply to everyone, including journalists. "All we're saying is provide [police] a halo. Give them a little room. We're not saying don't film. We're not saying stop. We're saying just step back a little bit," explained Villalba.

Posted by Amy Miller on March 15, 2015 22 Comments
The Texas legislature has a reputation for creating headlines, and HB 2918, authored by Dallas-area state Representative Jason Villalba (R-HD 114), might just be the "lege" scandal that we've all been waiting for. Texans don't like it when you mess with their right to hold government accountable---especially when it comes to police action---and Villalba's HB 2918 appears to do just that. Citizens, advocates, and journalists alike are coming out in opposition to a bill that would restrict the rights of everyday citizens and bloggers to film the actions of police officers. The Dallas Republican is even taking heat from his own caucus, with colleagues speaking out publicly against the bill's filing: Screen Shot 2015-03-15 at 8.13.49 PM Villalba’s “cop watching” bill amends and adds to Section 38.15 of the Texas Penal Code, which applies a criminal negligence standard to civilian interference with police business. The problem is that the Villalba bill characterizes the filming or documenting of police action as "interference." Here’s the controversial language (emphasis mine):

Posted by Amy Miller on February 02, 2015 4 Comments
On this day two years ago, Chris Kyle lost his life. Since then, his story has become an international sensation with the release of "American Sniper." Patriots from both sides of the aisle have had to come forward and defend Kyle---and the military---from attacks on Kyle's character and the role that he played during his tours in Iraq; but one state governor is going one step further by declaring today "Chris Kyle Day." From Fox News:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared Feb. 2 as "Chris Kyle Day" in his state, honoring the late sniper as a petition drive also gets underway to consider him for the Medal of Honor. Kyle, considered to be the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history, is the subject of the blockbuster film "American Sniper." Though the movie has been controversial, Abbott told Fox News he decided to honor Kyle because “he’s an American hero.” “He had the guts to stand up and defend this country,” Abbott, a Republican governor, told Fox News on Monday. He issued the proclamation at noon in Austin, Texas’ capital. Meanwhile, White House petitions have been launched calling for Kyle to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Although the Medal of Honor isn't on the books yet, Chris Kyle Day is---at least in Texas:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 24, 2015 4 Comments
Texas' new Agricultural Commissioner, Sid Miller, granted amnesty to cupcakes as his first act of office. "I'm announcing that I am giving full amnesty to the cupcakes in Texas. I'm also granting full pardon to pies and cookies and brownies and cakes and homemade candies," Miller said in his announcement. In Texas, the Department of Agriculture administers the school lunch program responsible for restrictive dietary guidelines. Guidelines were put in place to combat childhood obesity, but as Miller points out, the figures haven't changed in the ten years stringent dietary restrictions have been in place. "We're getting out of the school mandate business," Miller said. Miller explained further on Fox and Friends:

Posted by Amy Miller on January 15, 2015 18 Comments
Last year 17 states took a stand against President Obama and his plans to use an executive order to remove nearly 5 million illegal immigrants from the bounds of existing immigration law. The coalition, now made up of 25 states and led by Texas' new Governor Greg Abbott, will present oral arguments today advocating both to suspend implementation of Obama's immigration plan, and for the life of the lawsuit crafted to stop it. This type of lawsuit is unprecedented in scope. We know that the President holds certain powers of prosecutorial discretion; but do those powers extend so far as to allow a blanket amnesty without any sort of Congressional approval or legislatively-based change to existing law? And if it does, how should the law account for disparate financial impact to the various states? All novel questions that the court will have to consider. Via the San Antonio Express-News:
Legal scholars say the issues of deferred action and executive discretion on matters of immigration have been upheld in court many times before, and yet predicting the outcome of this lawsuit is difficult because of its unprecedented scale. “Under current case law, there is no basis to find this action illegal,” Chishti said. “But there has never been a case of 5 million, and therefore one might argue that prior cases don’t apply.” Abbott has said Texas shouldered the financial brunt of Obama's 2012 executive action on deferred action, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars for an increased police presence on the border, along with health care and education costs.

Posted by Amy Miller on January 07, 2015 2 Comments
Yesterday afternoon, a man walked into the El Paso VA Health Care System clinic and shot a doctor before turning the gun on himself. Via Fox 14 El Paso:
At a press conference Tuesday evening, Maj. Gen. Stephen Twitty confirmed the shooter was killed along with one victim. Fort Bliss did not confirm the identity of the victim. As previously reported, El Paso police were assisting Fort Bliss with reports of an active shooter at the VA clinic adjacent to William Beaumont Army Medical Center. The incident was reported at 3:10 p.m., Twitty said. Fort Bliss Military Police, the El Paso Police Department and federal law enforcement officers immediately responded as the VA carried out its response plan.
One blogger with the Dana Loesch Radio Show caught the anti-gun left trying to make the most of things:
Much like the scene of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting, both WBAMC and the adjacent VA clinic are gun free zones. But that didn't stop the anti-gun crowd from diving in immediately to capitalize on the tragedy: Screen Shot 2015-01-07 at 2.36.06 AM

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 06, 2015 15 Comments
Texas State Representative Marsha Farney filed a bill yesterday that would make the cowboy hat the official hat of Texas. Dr. Farney is an Aggie and former educator from Georgetown, Texas (a smallish town north of Austin). According to the Houston Chronicle:
The proposed resolution cites the significance of the cowboy headgear in Texas' history as one reason for naming it the State Hat, as well as its prevalence in modern Texas culture. "The cowboy hat symbolizes both the state's iconic western culture and the uniqueness of its residents, and it is indeed appropriate that this stylish and dignified apparel receive special legislative recognition," the resolution reads. This is not the first time the cowboy hat will be discussed in the Texas State Legislature. In 2013, the House voted unanimously to make Garland the Cowboy Hat Capital of Texas due to the city's "hat-making talent."
Garland, Texas is home to Stetson, one of the most iconic cowboy hat-makers in existence. No word yet on whether or not proper cowboy hat-wearing etiquette will also be codified. During the last legislative session, Dr. Farney introduced HCR 53, which designated Pecan Pie as the State Pie of Texas. The measure was greeted with some...interesting...debate:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 12, 2014 6 Comments
Even the Free-Market Jesus Paradise has regulatory issues once in a while. Wednesday, three Texan craft breweries joined with the Institute for Justice to file suit against the state of Texas and specifically, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Passed in 2013, Senate Bill 639 faces a Constitutional challenge because it, "strips breweries of their traditional right to sell their distribution rights and instead forces them to surrender those rights to distributors without compensation," according to the Institute for Justice. “It is unconstitutional for Texas to force brewers to give distributors property that they never earned and don’t deserve,” said Matt Miller, managing attorney for the Institute for Justice's Texas office. More specifically, the plaintiffs claim:
Texas cannot force them to give away their territorial rights—a part of their business—for free to distributors. They bring two claims: a takings claim under Article I, Section 17 of the Texas Constitution,[xii] which protects private property rights; and a substantive due process claim under Article I, Section 19 of the Texas Constitution, which protects economic liberty—the right to earn an honest living free from unreasonable government interference.
“For the last 18 years, I’ve poured my life into this business,” said Chip McElroy, president of Live Oak Brewing. “I’m proud to have been part of the Texas craft beer Renaissance. When Texas passed this law, not only did it give away part of what my employees and I built—it took my beer off the shelves in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and other parts of Texas where Live Oak beer would otherwise be available.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 09, 2014 8 Comments
God bless Texas. Last year, the Lone Star State passed a bill that allows schools to say things like, "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Hanukah" without retribution. Co-authored by Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) and Richard Raymond (D-Laredo), the bill, "allows students, parents, teachers and administrators the freedom to acknowledge these traditional winter holidays without fear of litigation or punishment and restores common sense by placing Supreme Court precedent into state law," according to the law's official website.
More ABC US news | ABC World News

Posted by Amy Miller on November 07, 2014 8 Comments
For many living in states not called Texas, it might seem odd that a place most regard as the "reddest" state in the union would fight so hard to gain ground in traditionally-liberal districts. Isn't a solid governing majority and clean slate of statewide office holders enough? Not if you want to keep building. And build Texas has, by electing a full slate of Republicans on the statewide level, defeating Battleground Texas' initial efforts to elect a Democrat statewide, and making key inroads with both battleground districts and battleground demographics. Perhaps our most notable achievement this cycle was flipping Wendy Davis's Senate District, SD-10, in favor of Republicans. When Tea Party candidate Konni Burton first announced her candidacy for Davis's old seat, many wrote her off as a long-shot; on election night, however, she proved them wrong. Via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
“It’s hard to believe that over 20 months ago I started having conversations with conservatives across Tarrant County about the need for someone to challenge Wendy Davis,” Burton, a Colleyville conservative with Tea Party ties​, told about 300 supporters gathered at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. “We were all sick and tired of being represented by a liberal in Austin who didn’t reflect the conservative values of District 10.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 18, 2014 48 Comments
AP reports via HuffPo:
The Supreme Court said Saturday that Texas can use its controversial new voter identification law for the November election. A majority of the justices rejected an emergency request from the Justice Department and civil rights groups to prohibit the state from requiring voters to produce certain forms of photo identification in order to cast ballots. Three justices dissented. The law was struck down by a federal judge last week, but a federal appeals court had put that ruling on hold. The judge found that roughly 600,000 voters, many of them black or Latino, could be turned away at the polls because they lack acceptable identification. Early voting in Texas begins Monday. The Supreme Court's order was unsigned, as it typically is in these situations. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented, saying they would have left the district court decision in place. "The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters," Ginsburg wrote in dissent. Texas' law sets out seven forms of approved ID — a list that includes concealed handgun licenses but not college student IDs, which are accepted in other states with similar measures.
The Supreme Court Order is here. It denies a request to vacate the stay issued by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals putting on hold the trial court ruling invalidating the law.

Posted by Amy Miller on October 03, 2014 11 Comments
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has reversed former House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay's 2010 money laundering conviction. The panel in an 8-1 vote held that the state failed to prove that corporate contributions made to Republicans running for seats in the Texas legislature in 2002 violated Texas Election Code. This ruling affirmed last year's overturning of the conviction by a lower court. We covered that earlier reversal, Which office does Tom Delay go to, to get his reputation back? From the Capitol City Project:
DeLay long believed the charges were politically motivated. “I understand what it’s about and it’s about … the criminalization of politics and the misuse of power … and prosecutorial misconduct,” DeLay said Wednesday. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 8-1 that the state did not sufficiently prove that DeLay funneled money as part of a plan to redraw congressional district lines in the state. He was accused of laundering $190,000 to fellow Republicans running for the Texas Legislature back in 2002.
Earlier this year, Leader DeLay spoke out against the similar targeting of Texas Governor Rick Perry by the Travis County District Attorney's Office:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 29, 2014 22 Comments
Watching the press conference that President Obama gave yesterday in which he revealed that his foreign policy has devolved from "don't do stupid stuff" to "no strategy," I was perplexed that the media was complaining more about the color of the suit instead of its emptiness. Mulling over the subsequent coverage, I couldn't help but wonder what the upcoming September 11th would bring for our country, because our enemies are clearly inspired by weakness. Now Judicial Watch has revealed that Islamic terrorist groups are operating Mexico and plan to attack the United States along our southern border.
Specifically, Judicial Watch sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Violent crimes are so rampant in Juarez that the U.S. State Department has issued a number of travel warnings for anyone planning to go there. The last one was issued just a few days ago.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 17, 2014 34 Comments
The prosecutors in Austin, Texas thought they had one over on Texas Governor Rick Perry when they convinced a grand jury to issue an indictment accusing Perry of abusing his veto power.  A copy of the indictment is here. That alleged criminal abuse of power related to Perry's threat to issue a budget veto regarding a unit of the prosecutor's office if Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg did not resign after a DWI conviction. Not just any conviction, Lehmberg was videotaped attempting to pull rank over the booking officers by mentioning they needed to make sure the Sheriff was aware of her predicament. It's not hard to see what she was doing -- hoping the Sheriff would intervene on her behalf.
Her field sobriety test is here, and she again kept mentioning her political career.  She was abusive and violent in the police station:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 16, 2014 96 Comments
Democrats are salivating over Friday's indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry, and for good reason. Their one bright hope for the cycle, Texas State Senator and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, has already done an early dive into the gutter, and their slate for the remaining up-ballot races is mediocre at best. They're last shot might be a long shot, but that doesn't mean they're not going to try. Progressive grassroots juggernaut Battleground Texas is already fundraising off of the indictment. PJ Media has a copy of the e-mail sent by Battleground Texas almost immediately after the indictment was handed down:

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 06, 2014 7 Comments
Wendy Davis supporters are pretty excited about her campaign for governor of Texas but when pressed to name one of her legislative accomplishments, they're surprisingly silent. Yehuda Remer of Truth Revolt sees a pattern:
Just as Hillary Clinton supporters were unable to name a single accomplishment of the former Secretary of State, Wendy Davis’ supporters are in the same boat. A new video by Texans for Greg Abbott features an interviewer asking supporters of Davis at the 2014 Texas Democratic Convention what her greatest legislative achievements were.
Here's the video:
Liberals are already preparing themselves for Wendy Davis to lose.