Since yesterday there’s been a flurry of news developments, none of which I’m going to be able to write about today, but all of which are interesting, so I’d encourage you to take them up in the comments:
1) Just days after a district judge ruled against Texas’s Voter ID law, the Fifth Circuit gave Texas permission to enforce the law in the meantime. Within hours opponents had asked the Supreme Court to delay the law’s implementation while the appeals process is ongoing. Considering that the Supreme Court blocked the implementation of Wisconsin’s voter ID law last week, it’s plausible that they’ll take the same view of Texas’s situation; early voting begins on Monday.
2) Meanwhile, also yesterday evening, the Supreme Court blocked the Fifth Circuit’s provisional support of a couple of restrictions in the new abortion law–meaning that more than a dozen clinics which had closed, because of the provisional ruling, can now re-open. The Supreme Court’s move doesn’t settle the issue; the case is still at the Fifth Circuit. But it does suggest that six of the justices are skeptical, should it come to that.
3) Attorneys for the city of Houston are trying to subpoena a bunch of sermons from area pastors, on the grounds that they may be relevant to the legal fight over the city’s new equal rights ordinance. As you can imagine, Christian conservatives were not amused.
4) And this morning the state announced that a second health care worker from Presby has tested positive for Ebola.
