The Evening Brief: June 25, 2012

New in The Texas Tribune:

• Key Provision of Ariz. Immigration Law Upheld; Others Struck Down: "The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a key provision of Arizona’s controversial immigration law that requires police officers to verify the legal status of people they stop or arrest. But it struck down much of the rest of the measure."

• Texans React to SCOTUS Ruling on Arizona Immigration Law: "Opinions on the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070, run the gamut. Here's an aggregated look at where Texas lawmakers and interest groups fall on the spectrum."

• Cruz Accuses Dewhurst of "Deliberate Falsehood": "Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst made a 'deliberate falsehood' when he said that he had never supported a payroll tax. Dewhurst's campaign says the allegations are 'false and misleading.'"

• Mark Norwood's Murder Trial to Be Moved From WilCo: "A state district judge on Monday granted murder suspect Mark Norwood's request to move his trial out of Williamson County, where his case has already received major media attention."

Culled:

• High court’s ruling on immigration not likely to have immediate effect on Texas (Austin American-Statesman): "The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling today on Arizona’s immigration law isn’t expected to have an immediate effect on Texas. State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, who has put forth numerous bills targeting illegal immigration, is waiting to see what effect the ruling will have on the future of immigration-related bills in the Legislature."

• Supreme Court ruling boosts Rove-like superPACs in Texas that keep donors secret (The Dallas Morning News): One of the winners in Texas of Monday’s Supreme Court decision on campaign finance is Michael Quinn Sullivan, head of a committee that’s campaigned for conservative candidates without reporting where the money comes from.… The Supreme Court made it clear Monday in a 5-4 decision in a Montana case that states can’t limit spending by corporations to elect political candidates."

• Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws that affect those same firms (The Washington Post): "One-hundred-thirty members of Congress or their families have traded stocks collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies lobbying on bills that came before their committees, a practice that is permitted under current ethics rules, a Washington Post analysis has found. … The family of Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) bought between $286,000 and $690,000 in a high-tech company interested in a bill under his committee’s jurisdiction."