News & Commentary

The challenges of 2021 are widely known, yet this year also had its bright spots.

This year’s Banned Books Week (Sept. 26-Oct. 2) has a renewed importance to me and the community of students I serve. You see, I’m a librarian at a public, inner-city high school in Houston. I’ve been an educator and librarian for more than 15 years. I’d like to think that I know what my kids like and need in the safe space I try to create for them through the library and all of its resources.  But I sometimes worry about pressures on school communities to censor and exclude certain kinds of information that we as educators strive to teach our kids, especially the ones that most need to see themselves in the materials they consume. What’s important for people to remember is that it’s not just books that are being censored, but any kind of information that can shape a narrative or idea, from a speaker invited to give a talk, to an LGBTQ Pride flag hanging in a window.  School districts in Texas are notorious for a more traditional form of idea censorship through the act of officially banning books from school libraries or book club lists. Earlier this year, 13 books were banned from school reading lists in the Leander Independent School District just outside of Austin. Some parents complained about books depicting sexual acts, violence, or profanity — all things that can be accessed in microseconds on a teenager’s smart phone. The situation got so tenuous that a school board member recently resigned. 

For all Texans, broadband is an essential part of everyday life. From students doing homework to adults looking for jobs, every aspect of our world today has been touched by the internet. The pandemic has further shown that how we work, shop, bank or attend medical appointments is dependent on broadband service. Now more than ever, it is apparent that all Texans need affordable and reliable high-speed internet. 

Waskom. Naples. Joaquin. Tenaha. Rusk. Gary. Wells. These names might sound unfamiliar now, but you’ll be hearing more about them soon enough.

We asked candidates running for State Representative in House Districts 115, 113, 104, and 47 about their positions on 13 key pieces of legislation affecting civil rights and civil liberties in our state. We then studied the results to determine which candidates were supportive of ACLU of Texas priorities. The scores below reflect how current state lawmakers voted during the 2017 legislative session. For challengers, the scores indicate how they would have voted, as indicated in their responses to our candidate questionnaire. Here are the bills we analyzed in each section. Click the header to find out more about each category:

On this date -- some 231 years ago in Philadelphia -- 39 delegates from the fledgling nation known as the United States of America came together to sign the final iteration of its Constitution.