In the weekend edition of The Brief podcast, Tiffany Bunton — an officer whose uncle died in the back of a squad car two years ago — discusses the national moment of reckoning around police violence and misconduct.
Courts
Stay up to date on Texas courts with in-depth coverage of major rulings, judicial elections, criminal justice, and the judges shaping state law from The Texas Tribune.
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Criminal Justice
Marching in solidarity: This year’s Texas Pride events highlight Black queer and trans people
LGBTQ Texans are getting back to Pride’s protest roots while standing alongside Black and brown people in their community, who are still fighting for equality on two fronts.
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Criminal Justice
Criminal case against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will return to his native Collin County, judge rules
Paxton, a Republican, was indicted in 2015 on felony securities fraud charges, but the case has yet to go to trial as side battles persist over the venue where he will be tried and the amount the special prosecutors will be paid.
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Texas 2020 Elections
Federal court tosses suit brought by Texas Democrats seeking to revive straight-ticket voting
Siding with the state, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo found that Democrats lacked standing to overturn Texas Republicans’ decision to kill straight-ticket voting ahead of the November general election.
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Politics
Texas lawmakers want to add more LGTBQ safeguards after U.S. Supreme Court guarantees workplace protections
A new ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court makes clear that it violates federal law to fire an employee on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. Now Texas lawmakers want to guarantee similar protections for LGBTQ Texans in housing, health care and other spheres.
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Health care
Years after a judge ordered fixes, Texas’ child welfare system continues to expose children to harm, federal monitors say
Two independent experts appointed to scrutinize the system described “a disjointed and dangerous child protection system … where harm to children is at times overlooked, ignored or forgotten.”
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Criminal Justice
U.S. Supreme Court rules Texas death row inmate had an ineffective lawyer, orders new review
In a 6-3 opinion, the justices said Terence Andrus had ineffective assistance from his lawyer and that it was unclear if the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals properly considered whether that could have affected his sentence.
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Economy
U.S. Supreme Court says civil rights law applies to LGBTQ workers, granting protections long denied in Texas
Texas has no laws on the books explicitly protecting people from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday now gives federal protections.
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Police brutality in Texas
Texas attorney general asks for power to investigate police who kill people
As the nation reels from George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants his office to have the authority to prosecute cases in which police kill. That currently falls to local authorities.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Plaintiffs fold hand in Texas state court lawsuit seeking expansion of voting by mail during coronavirus
A Texas Supreme Court ruling gutted their case, so plaintiffs have asked that their state lawsuit be dismissed. But litigation over expanding absentee voting during the pandemic continues in federal court.
