Good morning, 

This is the Texas Minute for Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Comptroller Seeks AG Opinion on School Choice Amid Terror, Foreign Concerns

• Texas’ Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock has requested an expedited legal opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton on whether certain private schools may be barred from participating in the state’s new school choice program due to potential ties to terrorist organizations or foreign adversaries. Brandon Waltens has the details.
      
• The Texas Education Freedom Accounts allow families to use taxpayer-funded education accounts to pay for private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, and other educational services. In his letter, Hancock wrote that his office identified “significant legal and taxpayer protection concerns” involving some schools that would otherwise qualify for the newly enacted school choice program.
         
• According to Hancock, some prospective TEFA applicants are accredited through Cognia, a Texas Private School Accreditation Commission-approved accrediting agency, but operate at addresses that have hosted publicly advertised events organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Gov. Greg Abbott designated CAIR last month as both a foreign terrorist organization and a transnational criminal organization under Texas law.
      
• Hancock also cited concerns that another Cognia-accredited school may be owned or controlled by a holding group linked to individuals associated with the Chinese communist government. Both Cognia and the Texas Private School Accreditation Commission are private entities.
       
• The comptroller is asking Paxton to determine whether a private school is legally disqualified from TEFA participation if it has direct or indirect affiliations with a designated terrorist organization or if its ownership, governance, or finances are traceable to a foreign adversary.

Court Backs Texas GOP’s Rejection of Supreme Court Candidate

• A Travis County judge ruled that the Republican Party of Texas properly rejected a candidate’s application to run for a seat on the Texas Supreme Court. The party rejected the application after determining the candidate failed to submit the required number of valid petition signatures.
     
• Yesterday's ruling keeps David Rogers, a Pflugerville City Council member, off the Republican primary ballot for Texas Supreme Court, Place 8. Rogers had sought to challenge incumbent Brett Busby.
      
• At the center of the dispute was the party’s authority to determine which candidates qualify for its primary ballot. The court’s ruling affirmed that the Republican Party of Texas acted within its rights when it rejected Rogers’ application for failing to meet ballot-access requirements.
       
• The ruling comes as the Republican Party of Texas continues to press its broader legal argument in favor of closed primaries—asserting that political parties have a constitutional right to control their nomination process and determine who may appear on their ballots without interference from nonmembers or the courts. The Texas GOP is currently suing the Texas Secretary of State to implement closed primaries.

Law Enforcement Halts Convoy to Mexico

• A 21-vehicle convoy on U.S. Highway 59 headed toward the Mexican border was stopped by the Goliad County Sheriff's Office. As Sydnie Henry reports, nearly every vehicle was impounded for lacking lawful registration. ​
     
• The sheriff’s office linked these in-tow vehicles to cartel money laundering, noting that most of the cars are wrecked or salvage-title units that cannot legally be imported into Mexico. Allegedly, Mexican officials will accept bribes to clear suspect loads through ports of entry, allowing cartel networks to launder profits by cycling junk vehicles through illegal import and resale schemes.
      
• Texas law requires vehicles operating on state highways to carry a valid registration or a lawful temporary permit. Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd, known statewide for his role in Operation Lone Star and his public warnings about cartel operations, has repeatedly argued that lax enforcement against these convoys effectively subsidizes transnational crime.

Court Dismisses Challenge to Texas’ Foreign Land Ban

• A federal appeals court has handed Texas a win in the legal fight over the state’s new foreign land-ownership restrictions, tossing a Chinese student’s challenge on the grounds that he lacked standing. The ruling means Texas’ foreign land ban remains intact.​​
     
• The new law restricts individuals from certain “designated countries” from acquiring real estate interests in Texas. Those designated countries are tied to recent U.S. intelligence threat assessments and currently include China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, with authority for the governor to add more.​​
   
• The case was brought by Peng Wang, a Chinese citizen who is living in Texas and attending seminary. He and other Chinese nationals argued the new state law is unconstitutional, claiming it violates the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Supremacy Clause as well as the Fair Housing Act. The court found that Wang had not demonstrated any evidence that the law would actually be enforced against him, given his circumstances.
      
• Reaffirming a lower court decision, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found Wang and his fellow plaintiffs lack standing to bring suit against the law. 

No Jail for Texas Teacher Charged With Student Sex Crimes

• Erin Anderson reports that a Round Rock teacher charged with felony sex crimes involving children will serve no jail time after pleading guilty to an “improper” sexual relationship with an underage student. 
     
• Domingo Perez Jr. was arrested in August 2024. He was charged with indecency with a child by sexual contact and possessing 50 or more images or videos of child sexual abuse material. At the time of his arrest, Perez was a science teacher in the Round Rock Independent School District.
     
• If Perez follows the court-ordered terms of his probation, the charge will be dismissed and he will not have a permanent criminal record. As part of his plea agreement, Perez permanently surrendered his Texas teaching certificate.

Quote-Unquote

"How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep holidays than commandments." – Benjamin Franklin​

Y'All Answered

Yesterday, we asked readers what object of Christmas cheer is on top of their family's Christmas tree this year: an angel, a star, or something else. The results:

Here's a sampling of folks' responses.

• "We have a small light-up star on our tree. We've always had a star. It was a star that led the shepherds to Jesus!" – Cathy Blake
     
• "Our angel is 42 years old and still has her wings." – Dawn Gerstenberger
      
• "Always a star!" – Bob Davis
      
• "I have a beautiful jeweled cardinal on the top of my tree!" – Sarah Thomas
     
• "I grew up with a real tree, and we always had a star on top made of cardboard wrapped in aluminum foil. My wife was raised with a real tree, but with a cardboard angel painted red and white. She passed away almost 3 years ago, so I chose her Angel for the top of my tree this year." – Gary Hunt
     
• "I have a beautiful snowflake as my tree topper." – Merryl Redding
      
• "Bah! Humbug!" – Chris Breaux

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