Arelis R. Hernández, The Washington Post; ICE’s arrest of nun heading to church fuels bipartisan backlash in South Texas
"Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja was walking to Sunday Mass in McAllen, Texas, when federal immigration officers stopped her, confiscated her rosary and put her in handcuffs."
Kyle McClenagan, Houston Public Media ; Ousted library director wins $475,000 settlement in discrimination lawsuit against Montgomery County
Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times; Texas Considers Required Reading List for Schools, Which Includes the Bible
"Texas education officials are considering sweeping changes to English and social studies instruction that would put readings from the Bible on a new state-required reading list for millions of public school students...
A draft of the list, proposed by the Texas Education Agency, outlines more than 200 texts, with widely recognized classics such as “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle for kindergartners, “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle for seventh graders and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech for eighth graders.
But it also includes passages from the Bible in middle and high school, raising questions about the separation of church and state.
A second proposed list, from Will Hickman, a Republican member of the state board, would require fewer books overall and include biblical passages starting in elementary school.
Supporters say the Bible excerpts, which include the story of David and Goliath from the Old Testament and a meditation on love from First Corinthians, have important literary value...
Democratic members of the state board have criticized the list for a lack of diversity in a state where Hispanic and Black students represent a majority of public school children. The state agency’s version includes texts from Black historical figures such as Langston Hughes and Frederick Douglass, for example, but has relatively few Black and Hispanic authors overall."
Bob Smietana, Episcopal News Service (ENS); Judge rejects Johnson Amendment settlement, keeping ban on pastors endorsing candidates
"A federal judge rejected a settlement that would have lifted an IRS ban on pastors endorsing candidates, saying the court had no authority to approve an agreement, in a surprising end to a decades-long battle.
Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas also dismissed the lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters, a Christian communicators group, and two Texas churches that was at the heart of the anticipated settlement. The plaintiffs had argued that the ban on endorsements violated their religious liberty. Under the IRS rule, known as the Johnson Amendment, tax-exempt nonprofits are barred from taking sides in political campaigns.
In dismissing the case on March 31, Barker said courts are barred from “providing declaratory relief with respect to federal taxes,” and therefore the court could not approve the settlement, as it required the court to make a decision that affected the plaintiffs’ tax status."
MEG KINNARD, JIM VERTUNO AND JOHN HANNA, AP; Stephen Colbert says CBS lawyers pulled James Talarico interview as early voting begins in Texas
"Late-night host Stephen Colbert said his interview with Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was pulled from Monday night’s broadcast over network fears it would violate regulatory guidance from the Trump administration on giving equal time to political candidates.
The issue came just hours before early voting opened Tuesday in Texas’ primary elections, which feature hotly contested Senate nomination races in both parties.
“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert said on his program, ”The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”"
Vimal Patel , The New York Times; Professors Are Being Watched: ‘We’ve Never Seen This Much Surveillance’
Scrutiny of university classrooms is being formalized, with new laws requiring professors to post syllabuses and tip lines for students to complain.
"College professors once taught free from political interference, with mostly their students and colleagues privy to their lectures and book assignments. Now, they are being watched by state officials, senior administrators and students themselves."
Lauren Jackson, The New York Times, Believing Newsletter; On James Talarico: The Democratic Senate candidate is campaigning on his faith.
"James Talarico has been taking classes to become a Presbyterian minister. And he wants you to know it.
At packed rallies, on Joe Rogan’s show and to his nearly two million Instagram followers, Talarico is constantly repeating his religious bona fides. He cites Scripture from memory and uses it to give theological answers to political questions. Even his campaign slogan has biblical roots. “It’s time to start flipping tables,” he says, referencing Jesus’s wrath in response to corruption at the temple in Jerusalem.
I’ve been watching Talarico for months, and I’ve been most struck by how deft he is at fusing philosophy with policy. He speaks often about compassion, care and even love. Not as a lofty ideal, but as something urgent. Something measurable.
“I believe love is a force as real as gravity,” he said in a long interview that aired on “The Ezra Klein Show” last week. “Love to me is the most powerful thing in the universe. It is not weak, it is not neutral, it is not passive. It doesn’t paper over disagreement.”"
Greg Lukianoff, The New York Times; This Is No Way to Run a University
"Martin Peterson, a Texas A&M University philosophy professor, was presented last week with a choice straight out of a dystopian novel. To bring his class in line with a prohibition on course materials that “advocate race or gender ideology,” he could either censor the part of his course that included readings from Plato or he could teach a different class.
The case illustrates the extent to which campus censorship has run amok in Texas: If some of Plato’s texts can’t be taught in a college philosophy course, what, exactly, can be taught?"
Lisa Peet, Library Journal; Supreme Court Will Not Hear Little v. Llano County
"THE LONG GAME
While this is a disheartening development for the plaintiffs, Dan Novack, VP and Associate General Counsel at PRH, feels that a favorable precedent could still be set at the Supreme Court level. PRH has several cases in play, including Penguin Random House LLC v. Robbins, challenging Iowa’s SF496 in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Penguin Random House LLC v. Gibson , fighting Florida’s HB 1069 in the Eleventh Circuit. Both are scheduled to be heard in early 2026.
Given that it only takes about one percent of the cases put forward to it every year, “when there is a traffic jam of cases, as there is in this emerging area of law, it’s really not uncommon for the Supreme Court to sit back and let it play out,” Novack told LJ. If the other cases are also decided against the freedom to read, the Supreme Court may not see the need to step in. But if rulings are split, it may choose to take on one of the cases.
If the Supreme Court had taken Little v. Llano, it could have resulted in a positive ruling coming sooner. But “I’m taking the longer view that it’s good to be presenting more options to the Court, and if they were to take a Penguin Random House case, I feel very strong about the merits of those cases,” said Novack.
Even Llano County’s attorney, Jonathan Mitchell, in his brief in opposition to the writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to review the Fifth Circuit ruling, stated that “The Court should wait and allow these [circuit] courts to weigh in on whether and how the Speech Clause applies to library-book removals before jumping in to resolve this issue.”
Novack acknowledges that this decision is a hard one for Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. “Something went very wrong in the Fifth Circuit,” he said. But PRH and its council are committed to a multi-year fight that could potentially reach the Supreme Court and set precedent for the right to read throughout the United States.
“Although our lawsuit has come to a disappointing end,” Leila Green Little, lead plaintiff in the case, told LJ, “I am encouraged by the many people across the country who continue our fight in the courtrooms, their local libraries, and our state and federal legislative chambers.”"
Bill Zeeble, KUT News; Federal judge says Texas law requiring book ratings is unconstitutional
"The 2023 Texas law requiring booksellers and publishers to rate their books based on sexual content and references has been declared unconstitutional in a Waco court.
A federal judge on Tuesday declared House Bill 900, also known as the READER Act, violates the Constitution. The ruling makes permanent a lower court's temporary injunction that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld.
The law firm Haynes Boone, which represented the coalition of plaintiffs that sued to block the law, said in a statement the ruling is a "major First Amendment victory."
"The READER Act would have imposed impossible obligations on booksellers and limited access to literature, including classic works, for students across Texas," attorney Laura Lee Prather said in the statement.
HB 900 sought to restrict which books are available in school libraries and required booksellers to rate their own books based on sexual content. The Texas Education Agency could have overridden the ratings to prevent school libraries from obtaining books."
Lindsay Kornick, Fox News; Joe Rogan urges progressive Texas Democrat to run for president, calling him a 'good person'
"Podcast giant Joe Rogan suggested on his show Friday that his latest guest, Texas Democratic State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, run for president as Democrats scramble for a new leader.
"You need to run for president," Rogan told Talarico near the end of the nearly 3-hour conversation. "We need someone who's actually a good person.""
ANDREW ATTERBURY , Politico; Florida joins conservative states severing ties with national library group
"Florida is among the latest conservative-leaning states to sever connections with the nation’s oldest library organization after the nonprofit became embroiled in the ongoing culture war over what books should be available to students.
The agency in charge of Florida’s public libraries issued a new rule in October forbidding any grant activities tied to the American Library Association, a 150-year-old organization that aids thousands of libraries across the country with training and funding.
The move by the DeSantis administration puts Florida in line with a cadre of Republican states and lawmakers leveling scrutiny on ALA, labeling the group as “toxic” and a “conduit” for exposing children to pornography — claims refuted by the organization and its supporters.
Conservatives in a growing number of states, including Alabama, Wyoming, Missouri, Texas and now Florida, have severed affiliations with the ALA, in part over the group choosing a new president, Emily Drabinski, who in 2022 tweeted that she’s a “Marxist.”...
How the rule will affect local libraries is currently unclear. Libraries pay for ALA memberships that grant access to benefits such as discounts on professional development and education products."
JEREMY SCHWARTZ, THE TEXAS TRIBUNE AND PROPUBLICA ; Book bans in Texas spread as new state law takes effect
"The local censorship efforts come as courts wrestle with a new Texas law that requires booksellers to rate public school library books based on their depictions of or references to sex. Books in which such references are deemed “patently offensive” by the vendors will be issued a “sexually explicit” rating and can’t be sold to schools and must be removed from shelves of school libraries. Books that reference or depict sex generally will be rated “sexually relevant” and require parental permission to read.
Texas schools would be barred from buying books from vendors who don’t use the ratings.
On Sept. 18, a U.S. district judge in Austin issued a written order blocking the law, which was passed this spring, from taking effect. Judge Alan D. Albright, a Trump appointee, ruled the law would impose “unconstitutionally vague requirements” on booksellers and “misses the mark on obscenity.”
“And the state,” he wrote, “in abdicating its responsibility to protect children, forces private individuals and corporations into compliance with an unconstitutional law that violates the First Amendment.”
A week later, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the judge’s ruling, temporarily allowing the law to go into effect while the court considers the case, which it is expected to take up this month."
BROOKE PARK, The Texas Tribune; Texas librarians face harassment as they navigate book bans
"Baker’s experience represents one of many new conflicts facing Texas librarians as book challenges continue to multiply. Many feel left out of decisions on banning books while also facing increased scrutiny from politicians, parents, and county and school district staff. Some have already quit, and others are considering it."
