The 86th Texas State Legislative Session brought challenges and opportunities for Texan defenders of civil liberties. While lawmakers passed a budget that funded public schools and cut property taxes, they also considered legislation that would negatively impact vulnerable populations across the state, proposing laws that threatened to roll back the clock on LGBTQ equality, reproductive freedom, smart justice, voting rights, and immigrants' rights.
But we also saw significant wins, passing favorable legislation that aimed to protect civil rights while stopping bad legislation that aimed to infringe upon them. Without the constant backing and assistance of our supporters, we never could have achieved these victories.
Throughout the 140 days of the session’s hustle and bustle, the ACLU of Texas took a stand against these threats along with dozens of our partners. We testified before legislative committees more than 25 times, registered our official positions on more than 100 bills, and delivered more than 30,000 messages from ACLU of Texas supporters to their legislators.
Take a look back at the recently-adjourned legislative session, by the issues, learn about the progress we've made, and the work still ahead of us.
Immigration and immigrants’ rights are hot button topics for civil rights supporters in Texas, but during the 86th Texas Legislature, our elected officials reviewed a lot of policy yet did very little on the issues.
One of the rumors at the beginning of the year about how the 2019 Texas Legislative Session would unfold was that the legislature would largely avoid the big social issues that it has pursued in years past.