The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - June 18, 2025

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

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Howdy folks, today is Wednesday, June 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, in a 6-3 ruling the Supreme Court of the United States found that a Tennessee law barring gender modification treatments for minors does not violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and that it satisfies rational basis review.

The ruling came down along political lines with each of the three liberal justices dissenting. Justice John Roberts delivered the opinion for the majority, writing that the, quote, case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field. Roberts adds, quote, the voices in these debates raise sincere concerns. The implications for all are profound. The equal protection clause does not resolve these disagreements, nor does it afford us license to decide them as we see best." End quote. Tennessee had passed a law in 2023 that banned the prescription of puberty blockers

and hormone therapy for minors, which was challenged under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. A district court initially blocked the law, but the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court order, which was then taken to SCOTUS. Next, Texas and other plaintiffs lacked legal standing to intervene in the federal government's approval of a spent nuclear fuel interim storage license to an Andrews County facility the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. The court decided 6-3 in favor of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and their lawsuit against the state of Texas, Fasken Land and Minerals, and others. Justice Brett Kavanaugh

wrote in the court's opinion, quote, Texas and Fasken had ample opportunity to present their views on the proposed storage site to the commission. They did so, and they had the opportunity to try to intervene before the commission and become a party, and after being denied, to raise their arguments for intervention on appeal to the D.C. Circuit, and if unsuccessful, there to this court." The dispute dates back to the NRC's approval of an interim storage license to Interim Storage Partners, an existing facility in Andrews County that already stores low level radioactive waste in the latter half of 2023. That license had been in the works for years

already. But at the last minute, the Texas legislature passed a ban on such storage of spent nuclear fuel away from existing reactors in a special session before the NRC's formal approval. In other news, Operation Showdown, a joint operation involving the U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Agency, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and U.S. Marshals Service, along with local law enforcement,

apprehended 76 individuals who were accused of being involved in firearm and drug trafficking crimes. Flanked by officers from various collaborating agencies, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Nancy Larson, said at a press conference on June 18th that the operation took place in April and May with the intention of reducing violent crime and hotspots around Fort Worth.

Law enforcement officers seized more than 280 firearms, 147 of which were equipped with machine gun conversion devices that convert semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic ones. Federal law prohibits the possession of machine guns with limited exceptions. The operation also yielded 22 kilograms of drugs including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, ketamine, and fentanyl. Last but not least, the Fort Worth Independent School District passed an unbalanced budget for the 2025-2026 school year

with amendments and a new tax rate soon to come. The district's budget is broken into three separate funds, which in total will cost just over $1 billion. The general fund will cost about $870 million and is $43 million out of balance. The other two funds are the Debt Service Fund, which will cost close to $150 million, and the Food Service Fund, which will cost $46.8 million, both of which are also balanced. The budget was approved by all board members during the district's June 10th meeting. Also unanimously approved was a new employee compensation package which will be applied to

the budget and an amendment on which the board will vote later this month or in August. 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.