Texas’ abortion bans are here to stay despite narrow clarification
Legal challenges have failed, elections haven’t moved the needle and the fight for a narrow clarification shows how immovable these laws are. Full Story
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![Protesters chant on Congress Ave. in front of the Texas State Capitol building at a pro-choice rally Friday, June 24, 2022 in Austin, TX. The Supreme Court overturned Roe V Wade Friday leading to national protests in response from pro abortion advocates. The announcement of the overturning would trigger an immediate ban on abortions in several states, including Texas. Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune -
Trump’s use of Enemy Aliens Act against alleged gang members is illegal, El Paso judge rules
The judge’s order prohibits the federal government from using the act to deport people in a large swath of Texas who are accused of being Tren de Aragua members. But the ruling did not order anyone’s release from custody. Full Story
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![The Richard C. White Federal Building in El Paso, Texas on June 3, 2025.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ swift surrender to DOJ on undocumented student tuition raises questions about state-federal collusion
Experts say Wednesday’s action to eliminate the long-standing policy could be a “collusive lawsuit,” where the state and feds worked the courts to get a desired outcome. Full Story
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![The Texas State Capitol on Sept. 24, 2022 in Austin, TX.]()
Credit: Spencer Selvidge for The Texas Tribune -
First trial of immigrant accused of trespassing on Texas border military zone ends in acquittal
The trial of the Peruvian woman was the first test of the Trump administration’s new policy aimed at prosecuting immigrants who crossed the border illegally with military-related charges. Full Story
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![Near Marker 4 east of the Texas-New Mexico state line, a sign, illegible from the Mexican bank of the Rio Grande, warns that the U.S. Department of Defense has taken over the area, May 12, 2025.]()
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Texas’ undocumented college students no longer qualify for in-state tuition
Within hours of a federal lawsuit targeting Texas’ policy of letting undocumented students qualify for lower public tuition rates, the 24-year-old law was no more. Full Story
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![Students walk through campus at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 25, 2021.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
In final act, Texas Legislature boosts judges’ pay and lawmaker pensions
House and Senate members agreed that judges needed a pay raise. But they spent the final hours of the legislative session debating whether Texas lawmakers should also benefit from the boost. Full Story
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![State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, answers questions from state Rep. Rafael Anchía, D-Dallas, regarding a conference committee report which would raise the base pay for Texas judges.]()
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U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear GOP activist’s lawsuit challenging Texas Ethics Commission’s lobbying fine
Former Empower Texans leader Michael Quinn Sullivan has challenged a $10,000 fine from the Texas Ethics Commission for failure to register as a lobbyist for more than 10 years at nearly every level of the state court system. Full Story
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![Publisher of Texas Scorecard Michael Quinn Sullivan speaks during the Texas GOP Convention Thursday, May 23, 2024 in San Antonio.]()
Credit: Eli Hartman/The Texas Tribune -
Effort to curb personal injury lawsuit payouts dies in the Texas Legislature
The goal of the bill, according to the author, was to curb “nuclear verdicts” — ones that award victims $10 million or more. Full Story
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![The interior of a CareFlite ambulance vehicle outside the Johnson County County Commissioners office in Cleburne on November 8, 2024.]()
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Long-awaited raise for Texas judges in limbo over legislative pension clash
A bill to increase judicial salaries from $140,000 to $175,000 a year stalled amid a disagreement over lawmakers’ own retirement benefits. Full Story
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![Members of the Texas House of Representatives during their budget discussion on April 10, 2025.]()
Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune -
“Anti-Red Flag Act” that would limit when guns can be taken from people advances in Texas House
Senate Bill 1362 would prevent officials from taking someone’s firearms if they haven’t been charged with a crime or aren’t subject to a protective order under the Texas Family Code. Full Story
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![Patrons of the SAXET Gun Show look at handguns at the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds in Robstown on Feb. 26, 2023.]()
Credit: Blaine Young for The Texas Tribune -
New limits for personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits may become a reality in Texas
The House made changes to the proposal that leave open ways for victims to be compensated beyond medical bills. Full Story
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![An ambulance is parked at Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas
at Austin in 2018.]()
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Proposal to automatically deny bail to some previously accused of felonies falls in Texas House
Democrats declined to support Senate Joint Resolution 87, which sprinted through the Senate and needed 100 votes to clear the lower chamber. Full Story
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![Groveton, Texas: Inmates sleep in their cell on June 4, 2024 at the Trinity County Sheriff’s office and jail in Groveton, Texas. Mark Felix/The Texas Tribune]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Federal trial opens to determine whether Texas discriminated in redrawn redistricting maps
The trial in El Paso will hear a challenge over the redistricting maps drawn by the Legislature that are based on the 2020 census. Full Story
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![Salman Bhojani, a former candidate for Texas Senate District 9, shows where he lives on an updated map that now draws him out of District 9 and now into District 2, at his offices in Irving, on Oct. 17, 2021. Bhojani suspended his campaign after state legislature adopted new district maps which draws Bhojani's home out of District 9.]()
Credit: Ben Torres for The Texas Tribune -
Stricter bail rules win final passage in Texas Legislature, will go to voters in November
The House passage of the measure asking voters to amend the state Constitution to tighten the state’s bail laws hands a major policy win to Gov. Greg Abbott. Full Story
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![State Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, urges his fellow representatives to vote for his bill regarding bail bonds in Texas on May 19, 2025.]()
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Long-running lawsuit against Texas’ foster care system appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court
Lawyers representing foster children asked the high court to reinstate a contempt order against the state, and the judge who issued it. Full Story
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![Heart Galleries, portraits of adoptable children, on display at the Child Protective Services office at Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019.]()
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Juvenile detention, imported shrimp, forever chemicals among hundreds of bills cut off by House deadline
Some measures that made it through before midnight dealt with jail bonds, an unconstitutional ban on gay sex, and the liability of vaccine manufacturers. Full Story
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![House Speaker Dustin Burrows speaks at his dais as house members gather during a point of order on May 15, 2025. May 15 was the final day for the House to file bills.]()
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Texas House votes to repeal ban on “homosexual conduct”
An unlikely group of Republican allies joined Democrats to approve repealing the ban, which has been unenforced since 2003. It is the first time the bill has made it to the House floor since it was first proposed decades ago. Full Story
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![Activists and members of Austin's LGBTQ community gather on the steps of the capitol to celebrate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. These riots signify a key moment in the birth of the modern LGBT movement in America. June 28, 2017.]()
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Texas House bill on lawsuits shelved after critics label it harmful to free speech
House Bill 2988 was centered on who pays the legal fees of those who successfully defend themselves against libel or defamation lawsuits. Full Story
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![The county courtroom in the Camp County Court House in Pittsburg on June 21, 2023.]()
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Bill to ban child marriages in Texas advances in the House
Before the House takes a final vote on the bill, it could face a proposal that would allow adults and minors to marry if their age gap is three years or less. Full Story
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![The dome of the Texas State Capitol on Thursday, April 24, 2014.]()
Credit: Anneke Els Paterson for The Texas Tribune -
Proposals to require judges to deny bail more often advance through House panel, signaling a broader agreement
Amending the Texas Constitution to crack down on the state’s bail practices has been an elusive priority of Gov. Greg Abbott’s for three consecutive sessions. Full Story
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![An Austin Bail Bonds II sign near Interstate 35 on Feb. 5, 2021.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune