Good morning,

Why does the Third Amendment exist? Find out at the end of the Texas Minute… Today is Thursday, March 24, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Paging All The Biologists… 

• When asked during her confirmation hearing this week if she could define what a “woman” is, Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson said she could not because she was “not a biologist.” Remember, she was specifically nominated by Biden on the basis of her being a black woman.
     

• “Congrats to all the biologists currently making $50k a year. The Crazy Train has pulled to the gate carrying a load of college-educated passengers flush with cash who can’t figure out their own gender without your help. This is your moment.” – Matt Rinaldi
     

• Did Joe Biden have Ketanji Brown Jackson examined by a biologist or other medical professional so he was sure he nominated a woman, per his campaign promise?

Pulling Porn From School Libraries

• Granbury Independent School District has removed from school library shelves books singled out for removal due to “overtly sexual content” and are inviting the public to review them. Erin Anderson has the story.
   
• The district has slated three books for removal because of sexually explicit material or illustrations: “Out of Darkness,” “We Are the Ants,” and “This Book Is Gay” – that third one describes itself as an “uncensored exploration of sexuality” on the book’s own cover. Five other sex-filled “teen romance” novels by Abbi Glines were already taken off library shelves.
     
• The effort followed a two-month review of 131 titles plus the Glines books by a nine-member committee made up of parents, community members, and district staff.
     

• Granbury ISD trustee Courtney Gore told Texas Scorecard that putting age-appropriate limits on what is available to kids in schools shouldn’t be controversial, and the district’s review was a commonsense response to their community’s concerns.
     

• Granbury ISD trustee Melanie Graft said the review committee has finished its work for now, but parents and district officials will continue to monitor the content of books that end up in school libraries.

Klick Forced To Answer Questions By Runoff Challenger

• State Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth) was forced to defend her legislative record, including accusations that she killed bills to ban child gender mutilation. Sydnie Henry reports a candidate forum hosted Wednesday by the Fort Worth Republican Women put a spotlight on Klick and her challenger, David Lowe.
   
• Klick also faced criticism for her part in re-drawing a neighboring House district that took it from a Republican-leaning seat to a seat more favorable to Democrats. The composition of the new district forced out conservative freshman State Rep. Jeff Cason (R-Bedford).
   
• Klick refuted this accusation, saying even Rep. Cason had come to her office to apologize for publicly accusing her of such.
   
• Not so fast… Cason told Texas Scorecard that while he did at one point apologize for being quick to name Klick publicly, he was ultimately vindicated in his accusation when she voted against efforts to make the seat more GOP-friendly.
     

• The runoff election is slated for May 24. The full candidate forum can be viewed here.

Freshman GOP Lawmaker In May Runoff

• After three citizens challenged Glenn Rogers (R–Mineral Wells) in the 2022 Republican primary earlier this month, he now faces Parker County Conservatives co-founder Mike Olcott in the May runoff election. Sydnie Henry has the story.
        
• As a political unknown in an open seat, Rogers won his first term in 2020 by about 300 votes following a July GOP runoff election.
     
• He now has a record. Rogers began his legislative career by voting against a proposal to bar Democrats from chairing committees in the GOP-dominated House. His lack of support for certain conservative and GOP priorities—like ending taxpayer-funded lobbying—earned him a score of 53 of 100 from the Young Conservatives of Texas. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility gave Rogers a rating of 45 of 100, placing Rogers solidly in the bottom quarter of Republican representatives.

Texas’ Border Failure

• In this week’s edition of The Luke Macias Show, Luke speaks with Nate Hochman of National Review about his coverage of problems at Texas’ southern border.
   
• Hochman recently penned an article drawing attention to the differences between Gov. Greg Abbott’s rhetoric about Texas’ border policy and the actual results of his border plan.
   
• As the border crisis intensified under these “catch and release” policies, Gov. Abbott implemented a “catch and jail” system where he instructed state police to arrest illegal border crossers on criminal trespassing charges. Hochman explains that many of the migrants arrested as a part of this program were simply held in jails along the border and then eventually released into Texas. (See the write up-by Katy Drollinger.)
   
• “Only two counties along the border at all are participating [in the governor’s border program],” said Hochman. “You have large swaths of the Rio Grande that aren’t cooperating at all, which basically means that all of the rhetoric that Abbott is deploying about Operation Lone Star just doesn’t apply to a large segment of the border.”

Parents Speak Out Against ISD’s “Pride Week”

• Austin’s school officials are dedicating an entire week to promote hazardous sexual behaviors and gender confusion to kids—and citizens are speaking out. Jacob Asmussen has their reactions. 
     
• Lesson plans include teaching children as young as 5 that they can be “trans” and “non-binary,” and another that advises teachers to tell kids, “Some people aren’t boys or girls, they’re just people.’”
   
• “Why are you so desperate to talk to kids about sex and confuse them about their gender? It’s creepy,” wrote one parent on social media. Another added, “Shouldn’t we be putting this effort into welcoming critical thinking and high achievement?”
    
• Earlier this week, Attorney General Ken Paxton notified school officials that they “are breaking state law” with the program. “I will work with and for parents to hold deceptive sexual propagandists and predators accountable,” said Paxton.

Your Federal & State Lawmakers

The districts displayed here should reflect those recently redrawn by the Legislature. Though the new lines do not take representational effect until 2023, they will appear on the 2022 ballot. Please note that your incumbent legislator and/or district numbers may have changed.