The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - July 18, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy folks, today's Friday, July 18th, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lauschus, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, a joint suit from El Paso, Houston, and San Antonio against the state of Texas, and its 2023 field preemption law was dismissed by an appellate court on Friday. The trio of cities challenged the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, also known as the Death Star Bill, passed by the legislature in 2023 as House Bill 2127 and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott that year.

Starting point is 00:00:45 The cities received a favorable judgment from a Travis County judge just before the law went into effect on September 1st of that year. The Travis County judge declared the law unconstitutional, but did not issue an accompanying injunction that would have prevented it from becoming effective. Next, a state constitutional amendment that allows the attorney general to prosecute election crimes is on Governor Greg Abbott's agenda of policies for the Texas Legislature to take up in the special session starting this Monday, July 21st. The amendment, officially referred to as House Joint Resolution 7, was introduced on July

Starting point is 00:01:22 14th by Representative David Spiller as a means to restore the Attorney General's authority to prosecute such crimes. HJR 7 stems from a 2021 ruling from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court. In an 8-1 majority, the CCA struck down a section of state code that allowed the Attorney General to prosecute election cases, affirming that only local and county prosecutors have that power. In other news, after a New York-based doctor was fined by Attorney General Ken Paxton back in February for allegedly providing abortion pills to a Texan, a county clerk refused to file the judgment, and now is again refusing to docket the order.

Starting point is 00:02:04 Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruch first refused to file the judgment and now is again refusing to docket the order Ulster County Clerk Taylor. Brooke first refused to file the injunction in March against Doctor Margaret Daly Carpenter, who was alleged to be providing abortion drugs such as me for pristone to a 20 year old pregnant resident of Collin County. Brooke issued another statement in July after he again received and rejected a court filing against Carpenter. Quote, while I'm not entirely sure how things work in Texas, here in New York,

Starting point is 00:02:30 a rejection means the matter is closed. End quote. New York is one of 18 different states that have abortion-related shield laws that are intended to protect providers and patients offering certain interventions and defend them, quote, against efforts to impose criminal and civil liability originating from outside our state. Also, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday the establishment of a new Regional Homeland Security Task Force, or HSTF, in Houston to address international cartel and gang activity and to coordinate efforts with multiple law enforcement agencies.

Starting point is 00:03:08 HSTF Houston, which will include local Homeland Security investigations and Federal Bureau of Investigation Houston agents, is just one of several task force operations that will be launched this year in response to one of President Donald Trump's executive orders on immigration and border enforcement. Trump's January order, titled Protecting the American People Against Invasion, calls for the DHS Secretary and the U.S. Attorney General to jointly establish the task forces in all 50 states. HSTF operations have already been created in Kansas City. In addition, Governor Greg Abbott has added the prevention of title theft and deed fraud to his agenda for the special session of the Texas legislature starting Monday.

Starting point is 00:03:53 Abbott vetoed Senate Bill 648 by Senator Royce West after the regular session, but has now added its purpose to provide, quote, strengthened protections against title theft and deed fraud to the list of topics on his special session call. West's office confirmed that he plans to author the bill again, but without some of the more stringent requirements that were in the original bill. Last but not least, Finance reports for the first half of 2025 were due this week, providing a great look at how politicians stack up against each other,

Starting point is 00:04:25 who's positioning for a move in one direction or another, and what to watch for in next year's midterm election. At the state level, the fundraising period only lasted the last few weeks in June due to the moratorium in place during and just after the regular legislative session that ended on June 2. However, federal elected officials and candidates had no such limitation. Visit thetexan.news for a rundown of what those reports showed. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

Your Ad Here

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - July 18, 2025

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.