Texas Criminal Legislative Update: May 6, 2015 Now that May is here, our Legislators are running out of time to move their bills through committee, pass them out of their Chamber, then repeat the process in the other Chamber. Thus, many bills will begin to fall by the wayside as the Legislators focus on their top priorities. We have put together some information on legislation we’re monitoring that still has a chance at becoming law. HB225 by Representative Guillen (which we previously reported on here) received a new wave of support following an impressive report that Texas has been dramatically and systematically under-counting prescription overdose deaths. The problem with the Department of State Health Services reporting methods is they focus
Read more →Texas Criminal Legislative Update: March 23, 2015 The 84th Texas Legislative Session is in full-swing in Austin, and you may want to know what new laws our legislators are considering and which old laws might get a facelift. Two controversial gun bills were passed out of the Texas Senate this week, along party lines. SB 11 by Senator Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) would allow licensed students on public university campuses to carry concealed handguns; private universities would be permitted to opt out. SB 17 by Senator Craig Estes (R-Grandbury) would allow open carry in public by licensed gun owners. This Session Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston) has filed two important bills related to juveniles and the justice system. SB 106 aims to clean up previously-passed juvenile
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