Tag Archives: Greg Abbott

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Republican legislators getting things done for social conservatives in Texas

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott
Texas Governor Greg Abbott

Texas is the most economically successful state in the union, but that’s not the only thing special about Texas. Texas governor Greg Abbott is a strong promoter of the free enterprise system. But he is also serious about defending Judeo-Christian values. Right now, he is my pick to be the next Republican nominee for President, even more than my previous favorite, Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Abbott’s doing a lot for social conservatives, as well as fiscal conservatives.

This Texas Tribune story shows what achievements he will be able to run on in a Republican primary:

Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law legislation shielding pastors’ sermons from government subpoena power.

Senate Bill 24 stemmed from the 2014 battle over Houston’s anti-discrimination ordinance, when the city subpoenaed sermons of five pastors who opposed it. The legislation was a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who joined Abbott on Sunday for a bill-signing ceremony at the churches of one of those pastors.

[…]Authored by state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, SB 24 says a government cannot “compel the production or disclosure of a written copy or audio or video recording of a sermon delivered by a religious leader during religious worship … or compel the religious leader to testify regarding the sermon.” It went into effect immediately when it was formally signed by Abbott on Friday in Austin.

You’ll remember that this law became necessary when Houston’s gay Democrat mayor decided to subpoena the sermons of Christian pastors to try to intimidate them into not talking about moral issues.

There’s another story from the Daily Signal about another bill that is headed to Governor Abbott’s desk:

The Texas Senate early Monday passed a bill to allow faith-based adoption and foster care providers to operate based on their religious beliefs.

By a final vote of 21-10, state senators agreed with their counterparts in the Texas House of Representatives that society should continue to make room for adoption and foster care services associated with a religious tradition, whether Christian or Muslim.

Only one Democrat joined the Senate’s 20 Republicans in voting for the bill. The remaining 10 voted against it.

In an interview Monday with The Daily Signal, state Rep. James Frank, a Republican who co-wrote the legislation, predicted that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott would sign it.

“I am obviously very excited about it passing the Senate, and I fully expect … that Governor Abbott will sign it and it will be law,” Frank said, “and we’ll have, I hope, more people serving and free to serve children in the state of Texas.”

Not sure why Democrats would vote against a bill like this, but I notice a lot of Democrats are getting busted for underage sex and underage sexting lately. We already knew how Democrats felt about no-fault divorce and adultery: they’re all for it! Any sort of selfishness that adults can engage in is more important than providing kids with a mom and a dad. Democrats oppose prioritizing opposite sex couples, because it might offend gay couples or single parents.

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Texas has sued the Obama administration 44 times for federal government overreach

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott
Texas Governor Greg Abbott – “Broken But Unbowed”

Here is a left-leaning article from the Wall Street Journal about a Governor and an Attorney General who are not just marking time while in office.

Excerpt:

When a deadlocked Supreme Court on Thursday blocked President Barack Obama’s plan to give millions of illegal immigrants a temporary reprieve from deportation, it marked a pivotal victory for the administration’s most relentless legal adversary: the state of Texas.

The president “is not a king who can unilaterally change and write immigration laws,” responded Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, whose myriad lawsuits against the Obama administration, including the state’s lead role in the immigration case, have been a trademark of his political career.

During Mr. Abbott’s first term as governor, and while he was state attorney general before that, Texas has challenged the president’s signature issues in court—tougher carbon-emission standards, health-care reform, transgender rights and others.

Texas has sued the Obama administration at least 44 times since the president took office—more than any other state over the same period.

The collective, long-term impact of all the lawsuits is uncertain. But legal scholars say the aggressiveness with which Texas under Mr. Abbott’s watch has fought White House policies and regulations points to a major shift in how political fights are waged.

Amid congressional gridlock, arguably the most consequential power struggles are no longer fights between executive and legislative branches—but legal battles between states and the federal government.

“The action is in the courts, and it’s cases brought by the states. And Texas is almost always at the table,” said Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler.

Texas’ legal assault is part of a sweeping wave of state-level Republican activism that has marked the Obama years. Compared with the Clinton era, Republican attorneys general have been far more active in challenging federal polices, according to a recent Marquette University study on Supreme Court litigation.

[…]Most of the cases filed by Mr. Abbott and his Republican successor as attorney general,Ken Paxton, have turned on a broad theme of federalism: that the Obama administration has encroached on Texas’ right to manage its own affairs.

[…]In February, Texas scored another major victory when the Supreme Court blocked the administration’s marquee climate policy, halting enforcement of rules limiting carbon emissions from existing power plants.

[…]The most recent legal action came last month after the Obama administration directed public schools to let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice. Texas accused the administration of unlawfully rewriting federal discrimination law.

[…]“I like playing offense more than defense,” said Mr. Abbott in a recent interview while crisscrossing Texas aboard a private jet for various political events.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is also a hero. Here he is explaining to the Daily Signal his latest broadside against overreach by the liberal federal government;

Abbott is a former Texas Supreme Court Justice, and served 3 terms as Texas attorney general, so he is no stranger to the law. Although sometimes people get the perception that the Obama administration is not being challenged, that’s not true. You just have to know where to look for the people challenging him.

News

Texas raids Planned Parenthood offices in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott
Texas Governor Greg Abbott

This is from Life News. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

After a Houston-based Planned Parenthood abortion clinic was caught selling aborted baby body parts, state investigators conducted a raid today on multiple Planned Parenthood abortion clinics across the state.
Texas officials raided several Planned Parenthood facilities today in an unprecedented move that follows on the heels of pro-life Governor Greg Abbott announcing earlier in the week that the state would further de-fund the abortion business.  Abbott said this week “the gruesome harvesting of baby body parts by Planned Parenthood will not be allowed,” but so far the state has released no evidence of illegal activity by the group.

The raids were carried out at Planned Parenthood abortion centers in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio by representatives from the Texas Office of the Inspector General and the state served subpoenas on five total Planned Parenthood centers. The Houston Chronicle has more:

Officials with the inspector general’s office at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission went to two facilities in Houston as well as clinics in Dallas, San Antonio and Brownsville. The Brownsville center does not perform abortions.

Planned Parenthood was given 30 days to respond to the move; a legal challenge is likely.

On Thursday, Planned Parenthood officials decried the subpoenas as politically-motivated, saying officials were “looking for an excuse to take health care away from thousands of women and men who rely on Planned Parenthood for preventive care.”

“The investigators were seeking hundreds of pages of information, from patient records to employee home addresses, involving 10 Planned Parenthood facilities across the state” the Austin newspaper reported. “Officials would not confirm details of the investigation, but the sources said it’s related to suspicions of misspent Medicaid money.”

ECM was quite delighted with this story, and it does show why the United States of America is still a great country. My Canadian friends have been filling up my ears with laments. “Angry”, was how one Calgary man described his feelings to me. “I’m hiding under blankets” one Calgary woman told me. Well, yes. When the Liberal Party gets a majority in a country where federalism is severely crippled, then no matter where you live, you’re pretty much done for.

But that’s not the case in the USA, where a man can dream of living under Mary Fallin in Oklahoma, or Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, or under Sam Brownback in Kansas. Or even in Tennessee or Texas under other Republican governors. You have your pick. And when you open up the local newspaper, you are going to see things happening that don’t make you angry, or make you hide under blankets. What a country! We should be thankful for the boundary between federal and state governments, and seek to strengthen the jurisdiction of states.

By the way, Texas also defunded Planned Parenthood earlier this week.