Meanwhile, Texas

[L'Emmerdeur]

The US Supreme Court as currently composed has jumped at opportunities to hold 'religious freedom' as sacrosanct. What 'religious freedom' boils down to here: when citing religious belief as motive, an individual or institution is given fairly wide latitude to deny or infringe the rights and/or freedoms of individuals with impunity. Further, the establishment clause is given short shrift, especially when in conflict with the religious freedom clause. See for instance the ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.

'The Supreme Court Wants to End the Separation of Church and State'

[There is] an emerging legal campaign by religious conservatives on the Supreme Court to undermine the bedrock concept of separation of church and state and to promote Christianity as an intrinsic component of democratic government.

The energy behind this idea was apparent in Justice Samuel Alito’s speech last month for Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative in Rome. Calling it an “honor” to have penned the 6-3 majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and mocking international leaders for “lambast[ing]” the ruling, Alito spent the bulk of his remarks lamenting “the turn away from religion” in Western society. In his mind, the “significant increase in the percentage of the population that rejects religion” warrants a full-on “fight against secularism” — which Alito likened to staving off totalitarianism itself. Ignoring the vast historical record of human rights abuses in the name of religion (such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and even his own Catholic church’s role in perpetuating slavery in America), Alito identified the communist regimes of China and the Soviet Union as examples of what happens when freedom to worship publicly is curtailed. Protection for private worship, he argued, is not enough. Because “any judge who wants to shrink religious liberty” can just do it by interpreting the law, Alito insisted that there “must be limits” on that power.

The limits that Alito is referring to have begun to emerge as the court explicitly seeks to anchor its understanding of constitutional rights in early American history—or even earlier, under the English monarchy. Alito and his fellow conservatives evidently pine for a return to a more religiously homogenous, Christian society but to achieve it they are deliberately marginalizing one pillar of the First Amendment in favor of another.

[Svartalf]

[Sean Hayden]

Brutal heat wave makes Texas among the hottest places on Earth

A stagnant dome of high pressure has fueled dangerous heat and humidity across most of the state, with several cities hitting or surpassing 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

[JimC]

Ouch!

[L'Emmerdeur]

W. T. F.

'Largest Texas School District to Eliminate Librarians and Turn Libraries Into "Discipline Centers"'

The Houston Independent School District, the largest in Texas and the eighth-largest in the United States, will eliminate librarian positions in 28 schools and turn libraries into what are being called “discipline centers,” according to Click2Houston.

Mike Myles, the state-installed schools superintendent and former charter schools CEO, earlier this month announced cuts of up to 600 central office positions.

Texas has a $32 billion state surplus but rather than allocate needed funds to public schools, lawmakers in the majority-Republican state legislature, at the behest of Governor Greg Abbott, just delivered a massive property tax cut.

The move to gut librarians and massively reduce access to books and other material does not appear to be budget related, as librarians will be allowed to apply for other positions.

KHOU reports libraries at those 28 schools “will be repurposed into ‘team centers’ where students who had to be removed from class due to behavioral issues will be placed to watch their class virtually.”

[JimC]

Reading is seen as a subversive activity by conservatives...

[Svartalf]

Unless it's the babble

[Sean Hayden]

I guess they hoped to point out the absurdity of a library in a school of kids who can’t, or won’t read, in order to mock those who don’t recognize culture’s role in the crisis. Why not go to the unused gyms, portable buildings, offices, and even classrooms? Because those don’t send a message. The library —because they can’t/won’t read anyway.

—//—

Our library is amazing. It’s likely one of the best in a school like ours. I told the librarian last year that I hadn’t seen anything like it at other schools. He said he spent his first year getting grant money. It shows.

The deciders in this case seem to think the library has little influence in student outcomes, something we should remind them of the next time they’d like to ban a book.

[Brian Peacock]

The Library has been made a
battleground of the Culture Wars.

[JimC]

All that book learning' just turns you into a commie!

[Svartalf]

Funny, Im still very much into private property

[L'Emmerdeur]

Texas joining the 'stop 'em from travelling' scheme.

'Highways are the next antiabortion target. One Texas town is resisting.'

More than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, many conservatives have grown frustrated by the number of people able to circumvent antiabortion laws — with some advocates grasping for even stricter measures they hope will fully eradicate abortion nationwide.

That frustration is driving a new strategy in heavily conservative cities and counties across Texas. Designed by the architects of the state’s “heartbeat” ban that took effect months before Roe fell, ordinances like the one proposed in Llano — where some 80 percent of voters in the county backed President Donald Trump in 2020 — make it illegal to transport anyone to get an abortion on roads within the city or county limits. The laws allow any private citizen to sue a person or organization they suspect of violating the ordinance.

Antiabortion advocates behind the measure are targeting regions along interstates and in areas with airports, with the goal of blocking off the main arteries out of Texas and keeping pregnant women hemmed within the confines of their antiabortion state. These provisions have already passed in two counties and two cities, creating legal risk for those traveling on major highways including Interstate 20 and Route 84, which head toward New Mexico, where abortion remains legal and new clinics have opened to accommodate Texas women. Several more jurisdictions are expected to vote on the measure in the coming weeks.

“This really is building a wall to stop abortion trafficking,” said Mark Lee Dickson, the antiabortion activist behind the effort.

...

[E]ven in the most conservative corners of Texas, efforts to crack down on abortion travel are meeting some resistance — with some local officials, even those deeply supportive of Texas’s strict abortion laws, expressing concern that the “trafficking” efforts go too far and could harm their communities.

The pushback reflects a new point of tension in the post-Roe debate among antiabortion advocates over how aggressively to restrict the procedure, with some Republicans in other states fearing a backlash from voters who support abortion rights. In small-town Texas, the concerns are more practical than political.

[pErvinalia]

Gilead, here we come.

[L'Emmerdeur]

The title of the article is inaccurate (no surprise). The story describes one woman in the position to cast a vote who is having second thoughts. Somehow she's managed to retain a few particles of common sense and decency despite her evangelical right-wing Christianity. That's faintly encouraging, but the piece also mentions the ramrod of the zealot cattle drive talking about voting people like her out of office. Given the constituency, he's not just talking through his hat.

[JimC]

How on earth would those crazy bigots be able to check that a woman travelling though their areas are a) pregnant (particularly before it shows) and b) heading interstate for an abortion. Surely various laws would prevent authorities stopping cars and demanding pregnancy tests there and then...