Good morning,

Yesterday, readers were asked about posting the Ten Commandments in Texas schools. Below, you'll find out how they responded.

Michael Quinn Sullivan is out for the next couple of days working on another documentary, so I'm filling in.

This is the Texas Minute for Tuesday, June 25, 2024.

– Sydnie Henry

Two Years After Roe: Texas Celebrated Sanctity of Life Day

• On the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to return the decision of abortion back to the states, pro-life advocates celebrated Sanctity of Life Day.  Brandon Waltens has the story.
   
• On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that there is no constitutional right to an abortion. As a result, most abortions became illegal in Texas under a previously-passed trigger law that outlawed abortion if Roe v. Wade was overturned.
   
• The Office of the Attorney General in Texas closed its offices at noon as a memorial to the millions of children who were aborted during the 49 years the Roe decision stood. Attorney General Ken Paxton warned that the fight is not yet over. 
   
• "The Biden Administration continues to use unlawful agency regulations and other levers of power to force states to institute its radical abortion agenda even when it violates state laws. I will never stop defending the sanctity of life against these unconstitutional attempts to undermine Texas’s life-affirming laws." - Ken Paxton. 
   
• In related news, vandals targeted a Waco church hours before the community's pro-life march. Ian Camacho has that story. 

A Bear Market for Casinos?

• After a legislative blitz in 2023, Las Vegas signals a bearish outlook headed into 2025. Daniel Greer analyzes the prospects for casinos in Texas. 
   

• Last week, as the Dallas Mavericks reveled in the glow of an NBA Finals appearance, a member of the team’s new ownership offered up bearish projections for his family’s dreams of casinos coming to Texas. Perhaps the casino’s lackluster primary performance served as a foreshadowing of the Maverick’s eventual defeat.
   

• Patrick Dumont, president of Las Vegas Sands said that "buying the team had nothing to do with getting gambling in Texas," but this is a far cry from the reporting coming out of Dallas following the team’s sale. 
   
• Dumont added Las Vegas Sands thinks, in the long term, if they are patient "hopefully" they’ll eventually succeed.
   
• State Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Allen) recently said that based on the last session—including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's anti-gambling stance—there is likely "not going to be any meaningful action" on expanding gambling in the Texas House in 2025.

Smuggler Led DPS on High-speed Chase in Laredo

• Texas Department of Public Safety troopers thwarted another human smuggling attempt in Webb County on Saturday. Will Biagini has the story.
   

• The driver of the SUV led troopers down a series of dirt roads after weaving in and out of traffic on FM-1462 before finally fleeing the vehicle on foot. He terminated his own escape by laying on the ground and saying that he "just got tired."
   

• The driver was arrested on charges of smuggling of persons and evading arrest. Four illegal aliens were transferred to U.S. Border Patrol.

Former Denton ISD Coach Arrested for Online Solicitation of a Minor

• A mother from another school district says she tried to warn Denton ISD of an inappropriate encounter her daughter had with district employee Justin Wallace Carter. Emily Medeiros has the story. 
   

• After a two-day sting operation conducted by the Denton County Sheriff’s Office, Justin Wallace Carter, 27, was among 23 individuals arrested on June 14. He has been charged with online solicitation of a minor after using the app Whisper to communicate with who he believed to be a minor for a sex act. 
   

• Carter previously worked in Ponder Independent School district where he coached at Ponder Middle School in 2023. A mom from Ponder, Krystyn Comeaux, told local media her daughter had an inappropriate encounter with Carter before he resigned from Ponder ISD in 2023. 
   
• Comeaux said she called Denton High School to share her daughter’s alleged story and warn them about Carter. However, she claims "nobody did anything." 

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Quote-Unquote

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

– John Adams​

Y'All Answered

A new law in Louisana will require public school classrooms to display the text of the Ten Commandments. A similar law was proposed in Texas last year; it passed the Senate but was killed by Speaker Dade Phelan without getting a vote in the House.

Yesterday, we asked readers if they thought Texas lawmakers should require all public school classrooms in the state to display a copy of the Ten Commandments. The majority of readers (87 percent) believe schools should be required to do so, while 13 percent disagreed.

Here is a sampling of the responses we received...

• “We can see what taking Father’s word out of the classroom has done to society. It’s time to put His word back in school to better society.” – Gene Klutt
      

• “Contemporary education theory has failed miserably. A little ancient wisdom can only help.” – Mark Juelg
      

• “We have lost our moral compass, and we need to get back to it.  We are seeing firsthand what happens to a nation that puts aside God's word and laws.” – Susan Valiant
      

• “The challenge with requiring the display of the Ten Commandments is what about precepts from the other major religions?  Perhaps, allowing schools to display religious teachings in general is an approach with greater appeal.” – Keith Maresca
      

• “The Ten Commandments were displayed in many places in our society for hundreds of years, and we were a more civil, lawful, moral country.  Take the Word of God out, and chaos rules.  That is just asking Satan to come in, and that’s what’s happened.” – Kathy Parker
      

• “Mandating the Ten Commandments be posted in government schools is trusting that the people who have been grooming kids into debauchery for decades are suddenly going to respect God, scripture, religion, morals, scruples, or human decency. They will not. And I do not want those wretched people teaching children what to believe about my loving, graceful, merciful God.” – Chris Breaux
       

• “I don't think it needs to be a law. I think the teachers should be allowed to display the 10 commandments if they choose to.” – Kalin Hartman
      

• “We must allow God back into our classrooms. Regardless of what the leftists believe or say, the representative republic that is the USA was founded upon and built from the Judeo-Christian ideas, ideals, and beliefs of our forefathers. Furthermore, the argument, ‘…if you allow one religion into schools, then you must allow them all…’ is a gross misrepresentation of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. The ‘Separation of Church and State’ argument is a clever and deliberate misinterpretation; a red herring at best.” – Charles McCord
       

• “The Ten Commandments are not just religious requirements, they are good quality life practices for everyone.” – Kathy Powe
       

• “No, because all government-run schools should be closed. The rot cannot be stopped unless it is completely destroyed and then replaced by pure education of reading, writing, and mathematics. None of this social s***show. Parents need to instill The Ten Commandments. This isn’t for the government to do.” – Tom Gavin
       

• “Put the Ten Commandments back on the wall and take out all the Marxist Social Emotional Learning. Win-Win.” – Donna Voetee
      

• “While I agree that we, as a people, need to return to our moral and Christian roots, I don’t think that government-mandated signs bearing the Ten Commandments are appropriate. Government-coerced religion is antithetical to the values we espouse.” – Gregory Jackson
       

• “God's commandments are basic rules to live if you are a moral and just human being and love your fellow man.” – Renee Walker
      

• “In every classroom, YES!  And place The Beatitudes right beside.” – Tim Rhodes
      

• “Let's keep church and state separate and encourage religious training in the home.” – Elizabeth Hilburn
      

• “Removing God and the Ten Commandments from public schools was the first mistake. Not returning them would be the second mistake.” – Steve Sullivan
      

• “I believe that ‘public’ schools should not have any religious references ‘pushed’ toward the students. The school’s responsibility is to educate. Separation of church and state is a long-standing bedrock of the USA.” – Richard Lucia
       

• “I don't think you have to be religious to be a citizen, but you do have to understand and respect our religious foundation.” – Hilda Maria
       

• “The Founding Fathers, as a whole, were abundantly clear that the scriptures were a key guide to the building of a peaceful and prosperous nation.  To exclude from our classrooms that clear and historic guidance of the Ten Commandments, a concept generally accepted by all people, is just insane.” – Kim Brittain
       

• “How can our citizens remember the basis of all law and the bedrock of our constitution if it is not first presented to our youth?” – Tobie Hall
      

• “When it’s all said and done, the Truth is the truth, and anything that moves us back in that direction is good. The posting of the Ten Commandments does make a statement about who we are and what we value, but it is largely symbolic. We can force them to put them on the wall, but we cannot force them to put them in their hearts.” – Larry Thacker
      

• “The Ten Commandments were posted and read when I was a kid.  It certainly never hurt me and probably helped me and others to read it and know that there is a God.” – B.D. Marshall

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