Happy Independence Day!

I used to wonder why we celebrate on the 4th of July instead of October 19, when the War of Independence ended. Below, I offer some thoughts on why the Declaration matters.

This is the Texas Minute for Thursday, July 4, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

NOTE: The Texas Minute will return to your inbox on Tuesday, July 9.

Paxton Secures Temporary Block of Biden’s LNG Export Restrictions

• Attorney General Ken Paxton obtained a temporary injunction against the Biden administration, blocking their decision to halt liquefied natural gas exports. Luca Cacciatore has the details.
      
• The Biden administration first announced their decision to temporarily pause new applications for LNG exports—excluding countries with which the U.S. has a free trade agreement—on January 26. Administration officials tried to argue they were merely updating existing standards on economic and environmental analyses.
      
• Texas officials, meanwhile, have characterized the move as a hostile affront to the Lone Star State's economic interests.
      
• The federal district judge reviewing the case found that the administration’s primary claim was not sufficiently justified.
     

• Paxton and a coalition of states are now seeking a permanent injunction on the administration's actions.

Texas Congressman Seeks to Revoke Visas for Foreign Students Who Riot, Assault Police

• Legislation proposed by Texas Republican U.S. Rep. August Pfluger would allow for the deportation of foreign students and faculty on visas found guilty of participating in violence or rioting. Debra McClure reports the congressman also wants to take away federal student aid from those convicted of assaulting police or for organizing, encouraging, or engaging in riots.
       
• Pfluger is the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s subcommittee on Counterterrorism. 

RELATED NEWS

• Will Biagini reports Rhiannon Hamam was among the 57 people arrested during the spring protests. Charges against her and the others were recently dropped by the Travis County district attorney.

After Failed Paxton Impeachment, House General Investigating Committee Sets Meeting with Secret Agenda

• Cloaked in secrecy, the Texas House General Investigating Committee has announced it will hold a hearing on July 17. As Daniel Greer reports, the committee gained statewide notoriety for its secretive investigation of Attorney General Ken Paxton, which included not giving him the opportunity to defend himself.
       
• The committee is supposed to investigate allegations of misconduct within the state government. In recent years, though, the committee has tended to focus on investigating opponents of the House leadership. For example, the committee was used to assault the character of UT Board of Regents member Wallace Hall for his actions in disclosing illegal and unethical schemes inside that institution.
      
• The committee has also been used to protect the cronies of the chamber's leadership. During the lead-up to the 2011 legislative session, former State Rep. Larry Phillips (R-Sherman) was accused of threatening then-State Rep. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) of being redistricted out of his seat if he didn’t support Joe Straus’ return to the Speakership. Famously, committee members called Phillips to testify without putting him under oath. The charges were dismissed.
       
• In 2019, disgraced House Speaker Dennis Bonnen infamously offered Texas Scorecard a quid-pro-quo to attack political rivals. The committee found that the speaker had “likely violated” the law but recommended no further action.
         
• The committee's chairman, Andrew Murr, was censured by his local GOP and forced to retire from public life because of his role in the 2023 Paxton impeachment.

Fort Worth ISD Approves Deal with Radical Abortion Group

• Trustees in the Fort Worth Independent School District have approved working with the controversial organization Girls Inc., which is known to push leftist ideology. Emily Medeiros has the story.
      
• Fort Worth ISD will use $105,000 from its general fund to pay the group for its services. As first reported by the Dallas Express, Girls Inc. will have access to 48 campuses in the district, including elementary, middle, and high schools.
        
• Girls Inc. has promoted far-left political and gender agendas, including abortion and transsexualism. Fort Worth’s mayor, Republican Mattie Parker, recently announced she would be serving on Girls Inc. of Tarrant County’s inaugural advisory committee.
       
• “The overwhelming majority of parents do not want their kids anywhere near a group pushing those. Yet, Fort Worth ISD continues to prove they are pushing radical ideology on kids. It’s no wonder so many kids are not at grade level in math and reading. FWISD needs a top to bottom overhaul, and we will have that chance in May of 2025.” – Bo French, Tarrant County GOP 

School Districts Going ‘Cell Phone Free’

• Students in a Central Texas school district will no longer be able to use cell phones in their classrooms. Erin Anderson reports the move by Killeen ISD is part of a trend to cut down on classroom distractions.
     
• Under the Killeen plan, each student will be issued a phone pouch with a security lock where they will store their cell phones during the school day. Students will keep possession of their phone in the pouch. If they need to use it, they must get permission and go to a “phone zone” where they can tap their pouch on an unlocking base.
      
• La Vega ISD in Waco and Richardson ISD in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have also implemented similar restrictions.
      
• State Rep. Ellen Troxclair (R–Lakeway) has said she intends to file legislation putting statewide limits on phones in schools.

The Texas Minute will return on Tuesday, July 9.

Reflection
What was Different on the 5th of July?

There was no difference between July 3, 1776, and July 5. By all outward appearances, the American colonies were no more free and no more independent. Practically speaking, the governing structures were not different.

So what makes the Fourth of July so special?

Think about it. We do not celebrate October 19, 1781, the date the war for American independence ended. There are no parades commemorating September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris formally concluded the war.

No, we celebrate July 4, 1776. That is the day when our Founding Fathers firmly, finally, and officially committed themselves—their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor—to the cause of American liberty.

Now, make no mistake: many of them had done so personally and individually weeks, months, even years earlier. They already had an army, and blood had already been shed.

Yet, the Fourth of July is celebrated because that is when they formally, out loud, with one voice, declared their independence. They acknowledged to each other and a "candid world" that they were dissolving their political ties with England. 

We celebrate their commitment to the fight. It is a recognition that, in the most important ways, by choosing to declare their independence, they had already achieved it.

Nearly all of our Founding Fathers were men of faith; they understood that the struggle upon which they were to engage may or may not be successful in the eyes of the world. That didn’t matter; they achieved freedom in their choice, declared on the Fourth of July, and the fight ahead was merely the necessary consequence.

On Independence Day, we celebrate our Founding Fathers’ commitment to the ideals of self-governance. On Independence Day, we celebrate their willingness to exercise their convictions for themselves and for us. 

On this Independence Day, let us recommit ourselves to their founding convictions. Let us recognize that refusing to accept the yoke of tyranny is the highest expression of liberty.

As it was in 1776, so it is today. The real difference between July 3rd and July 5th is what we commit ourselves to on the Fourth of July.

Quote-Unquote

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

— Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton, William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn, Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton, John Hancock, Maryland, Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross, Delaware, Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris, Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark, Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott, and Matthew Thornton