Texas executes man convicted of killing Arlington pastor in 2011
Steven Lawayne Nelson maintained that he unknowingly participated in the violent church robbery but didn’t harm anyone. His execution was the state’s first for 2025. Full Story
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![Huntsville, Texas: Exteriors of the Texas State Penitentiary “Walls Unit” August 20, 2020 in Huntsville, Texas.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune -
Justice Department restarts legal aid programs for detained immigrants
The agency’s reversal comes after a federal judge told the Trump administration it must continue to pay for grants and other programs it abruptly froze last month. Full Story
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![A woman commutes across the U.S-Mexico border crossing in Laredo on Nov. 9, 2021.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
Donald Trump’s push to freeze federal funds sparks confusion in Texas
Texas cities, counties, higher education institutions and nonprofits clambered Tuesday to gauge the potential fallout from the suspension, later blocked temporarily by a federal judge. Full Story
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![U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on AI infrastructure at the Roosevelt room at White House in Washington, U.S., January 21, 2025.]()
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Department of Justice cuts off federally funded legal aid to detained immigrants
The decision to halt the program could prevent thousands of people detained in immigration detention centers from receiving legal advice. Full Story
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![South Texas Family Residential Center, an ICE detention center in Dilley, on Sept. 30, 2020.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Feds drop charges against Texas doctor accused of leaking transgender care data
Dr. Eithan Haim of Dallas had faced four counts for wrongfully disclosing the individually identifiable health information of underage patients at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Full Story
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![Texas Children’s Hospital and other buildings in the Texas Medical Center in Houston on June 26, 2020.]()
Credit: May-Ying Lam for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Supreme Court tosses state bar case against Ken Paxton
The state bar had sought to sanction Paxton, which could have carried a punishment ranging from a private reprimand to disbarment. Full Story
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![Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas, speaks to the media Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, during a press conference following arguments in the case “Free Speech Coalition, Inc., et al. v. Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas,” at the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C.]()
Credit: Luke Johnson for The Texas Tribune -
Death sentences and executions in Texas at record lows
Texas continues to lead other states on capital punishment. But the decline in new death sentences and executions reached a record low. Full Story
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![Protesters unload signs and speakers outside of the Huntsville Unit shortly before a scheduled execution in Huntsville on October 17, 2024.]()
Credit: Mark Felix for the Texas Tribunne -
More than 100 Texans active in the Jan. 6 insurrection among those pardoned
A Texan was the first to breach the Capitol and many others joined the assault. The presidential pardon helps cast all of them as folk heroes. Full Story
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Appeals court rules against DACA, but leaves protections for migrants in place
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the ruling as a victory. But DACA recipients can continue renewing permits to live and work in the U.S. Full Story
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![DACA recipients and supporters rally in celebration of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the program outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Phoenix in June 2020.]()
Credit: Thomas Hawthorne/The Republic via REUTERS -
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 22 other states sue to halt planned federal methane fines
The rule fines certain oil and gas facilities that exceed federal limits for methane emissions. Full Story
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![The Rebel Gas Plant vents off natural gas into two flare stacks Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, in Garden City.]()
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Criminal appeals court to rehear election wrongdoing case involving Washington County Republican
The Court of Criminal Appeals will rehear a case it threw out last year. Three of the judges became targets of Attorney General Ken Paxton over another ruling and lost reelection. Full Story
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![The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Jan. 15, 2020.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
U.S. Supreme Court weighing constitutionality of Texas’ age-verification requirement for porn sites
The Supreme Court’s decision on Texas’ law, which adult entertainment website attorneys said were the most overreaching in the country, could determine the fate of similar laws in more than a dozen other states. Full Story
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![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to the media on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, during a press conference following arguments in the case “Free Speech Coalition, Inc., et al. v. Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas,” at the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C.]()
Credit: Luke Johnson for The Texas Tribune -
When is a business to blame for over-serving? Texas Supreme Court weighs the line in drunk driving case
The court’s ruling could boost a state law that allows drunk driving victims to sue businesses that over-serve alcohol to intoxicated individuals. Full Story
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![The Texas Supreme Court on Jan. 15, 2020.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texas Supreme Court gives initial win to Paxton in migrant shelter case
The high court did not rule on the merits of the case, but allows Paxton to continue his investigation of Annunciation House. Full Story
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![Bishop Mark Seitz (right) speaks at a press conference in El Paso alongside Ruben Garcia, director of the Annunciation House (left) on Feb. 23, 2024.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
Ken Paxton files second lawsuit against TikTok for exposing minors to explicit content
The attorney general argues that the social media company violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by listing itself as appropriate for children. Full Story
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![The TikTok logo outside the company's U.S. head office in Culver City, California, on Sept. 15, 2020.]()
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Jimmy Blacklock named new chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court
Blacklock replaces Nathan Hecht, the longest serving justice on the high court. Gov. Greg Abbott also appointed his general counsel, James Sullivan, to the bench. Full Story
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![Texas Supreme Court Justice Jimmy Blacklock laughs while hearing questions during a Q & A after hearing two a civil cases at the University of Houston Law Center at in the Danny M. Sheena Courtroom at the John. M. O’Quinn Law Building, Tuesday, October 29, 2024, in Houston. The Court travels twice per year to hold oral arguments in different areas of the state.]()
Credit: Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune -
Clemency given to seven Texans facing execution, four others
On the same day that President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of seven Texans, Gov. Greg Abbott issued his own set of pardons. Full Story
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![President Joe Biden speaks as he visits the Department of Labor for an event honoring the nation's labor history and Frances Perkins, longest serving U.S Secretary of Labor, in Washington on Dec. 16, 2024.]()
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Nathan Hecht, Texas’ most tenured Supreme Court justice, prepares to retire
Over 35 years, Hecht modernized the court, increased access to justice for the poor and saw his conservative views come to dominate the bench. Full Story
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![Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht delivers his State of the Judiciary speech at the Supreme Court in Austin on Apr. 5, 2023.]()
Credit: Leila Saidane/The Texas Tribune -
Ken Paxton sues NCAA over transgender athletes’ participation in women’s college sports
The attorney general is accusing the organization of misleading fans by allowing transgender college athletes in women’s sports. Full Story
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![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to delegates at the Texas Republican Convention in San Antonio on June 15, 2018.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House panel may never hear Robert Roberson’s testimony after new legal move
Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to delay legal proceedings until Jan. 13 — the day before the committee disbands — even as lawmakers vowed to continue fighting to hear from Roberson. Full Story
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![Robert Roberson photographed through plexiglass at TDCJ Polunsky Unit in Livingston on Dec. 19, 2023. Texas death row prisoners are housed in Livingston but executed at the state prison in Huntsville, about 43 miles away.]()
Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Innocence Project
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