Legal Showdown Over Sanctuary Cities Starts in San Antonio: Your Texas Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I just want to smoke my last rock.”

—Regina Barnes to Austin police, according to KXAN. Police responded to the scene after Barnes crashed her car into two parked vehicles. The 45-year-old woman allegedly proceeded to smoke crack right in front of the officers before she was arrested.

BIG NEWS

Sanctuaries Showdown
The much-anticipated legal battle over Senate Bill 4 begins Monday morning at a federal court in San Antonio. The cities of Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, several border counties, the little town of El Cenizo, and a handful of immigrant advocacy groups will face off against the state of Texas and President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice in an attempt to convince a judge to issue a preliminary injunction to keep the law from going into effect in September. As the Austin American-Statesman notes, the outlook for the pro-sanctuaries side looks pretty good. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia is hearing the case, and he recently ruled in a separate lawsuit that federal immigration detention requests—a big part of what SB 4 is all about—are unconstitutional. A ban on sanctuary cities was among Governor Greg Abbott’s top priorities heading into the legislative session. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers, immigrant advocates, and the police chiefs in most of Texas’s major cities staunchly oppose the bill, which they say will strike fear in immigrant communities, result in unnecessary deportations, prevent immigrants from reporting crimes, and will open the door for local law enforcement officers to racially profile and harass Hispanic people. Immigrant advocates have already “flooded” San Antonio for the hearing, according to the Washington Post, and hundreds of protesters are expected.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Waco Woes
A good chunk of the country, including some Texas cities, celebrated LGBT rights over the weekend by holding Pride parades. Meanwhile, the Waco Tribune-Herald highlighted the fact that gay couples still can’t get married in the Central Texas city’s courthouses. According to the Tribune, only one justice of the peace in Waco, Dianne Hensley, has been hosting civil wedding ceremonies since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in July 2015 legalizing gay marriage. And Hensley, thinks she’s entitled to a “religious exemption” that allows her to deny gay couples who want to get married while she continues to perform weddings for straight couples. Other Waco justices have simply stopped performing weddings completely since the ruling. Hensley told the Tribune that when same-sex couples inquire about a courthouse wedding, her office tells them that the judge is unavailable and instead hands them a list of local ministers who would preside over a same-sex wedding.

Dramatic Victory
Texan golfer Jordan Spieth wowed golf fans on Sunday, winning the Travelers Championship tournament with a ridiculous birdie shot on the eighteenth hole. In the first round of a playoff after tying Daniel Berger for the lead, Spieth somehow nailed a 60-foot chip shot from a bunker for a walk-off win, according to the Associated Press. Spieth was perhaps buoyed by the energy of the crowd, which seemed pretty stoked to see a big-name golfer like Spieth face off against some other top talents who signed up for a tournament that’s historically been kind of meh, according to ESPN. But this one was fun. By the time the eighteenth hole rolled around, the crowd was chanting Spieth’s name and even doing the wave. The win puts Spieth in some coveted golf territory: it’s the 23-year-old’s tenth PGA Tour victory, so he joins Tiger Woods as the only golfers to reach double-digit tour wins before their twenty-fourth birthdays since 1983, according to ESPN.

Enjoy Your Flight
The latest chapter in the ongoing airline horror story was on a Houston-bound Southwest flight, when a passenger reportedly tried to open up the emergency door in mid-air. According to KTRK, the Los Angeles-to-Houston flight had to be diverted to Corpus Christi after a passenger was acting unstable. Fellow passengers said the woman had been ranting in the airport before takeoff, and she was pacing up and down the aisle of the plane while in flight. Then she tried to pry open the emergency door, which freaked out everyone, including the pilot, who decided enough was enough and landed in Corpus Christi. The woman was restrained on the plane by an off-duty cop who works for Liberty County ISD, according to the Houston Chronicle, and she was escorted off the flight by local law enforcement once the plane landed.