Special prosecutors said they’ll be seeking first-degree felony securities fraud charges against Attorney General Ken Paxton in the next few weeks. But Paxton spokesman Anthony Holm called them inexperienced prosecutors leading a “politically motivated effort to ruin the career of a longtime public servant.”
The state’s Democratic Party announced it's doing away with its longtime “Texas Two-Step” tradition of allocating primary voters, following objections from the national party. Both of the state’s parties will allocate all their national convention delegates based on the outcomes of their primaries, giving primary voters a bigger say in choosing a 2016 nominee.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, accused Gov. Greg Abbott of engaging in possibly illegal “pay to play” politics by promising to help a major donor move legislation pushed by insurance companies. Castro referenced an email exchange between Abbott’s office and Richard Weekley, CEO of Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz released his memoir, A Time for Truth, in which he bluntly expresses his thoughts on Washington and criticizes Republican leadership. One passage in the book, relating to an endorsement from the elder President Bush in 2009, led to public dispute between Cruz and Karl Rove, who said he didn’t suggest “that the elder Bush was too old to have good judgment anymore.”
Public employers including Texas agencies and universities began allowing current and retired gay and lesbian employees to enroll their same-sex spouses in the same benefit programs and services available to opposite-sex couples. That decision followed Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, which led to some county clerks refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses right away. Paxton wrote in an opinion that clerks can deny those licenses but should be prepared to face lawsuits over that.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of a coalition of states including Texas, which sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its regulations on mercury, acid gases and other toxic metals emissions that spew from power plants. Fresh off that win, Paxton sued the EPA over its new “Waters of the U.S.” rule.
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with Texas abortion providers and temporarily put on hold a ruling that would have closed about half of the state’s abortion facilities. The law, which was set to take effect this week, would have required Texas' abortion facilities to meet hospital-like standards, including minimum sizes for rooms and doorways and pipelines for anesthesia.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it’ll implement new guidelines designed to better protect transgender people in immigration detention facilities. The announcement comes after 35 congressional Democrats wrote to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson asking ICE to change its policies.