Post Date: August 2017

The Inconvenient Role of Texas Public Opinion in This Week's SB 4 Ruling

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

On August 30, a federal court in San Antonio issued a temporary injunction halting the September 1 implementation of part of Senate Bill 4, the so-called anti-Sanctuary Cities bill passed during the regular session amid much controversy, including heated confrontation on the floor of the Texas House on the last day of business. The decision temporarily blocked implementation of provisions designed to force local authorities to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and to mete out various punishments to local governments and specific individuals that enact policies limiting enforcement and cooperation, but let stand the provision guaranteeing the ability of law enforcement officers to inquire about the citizenship status of anyone they have lawfully detained.  In the June 2017 University of Texas / Texas Tribune Poll, we asked Texans about the two sets of provisions treated in this week's decision. To the extent that concern might be thought of as overwhelming, it was not in the direction the ruling took.

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A Quick Look at Donald Trump's Texas Poll Numbers as He Visits in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey

| By: Jim Henson

Donald Trump will make a presidential visit to Texas to survey the damage wrought by Harvey – reports say he will visit Corpus Christi – and to drop in on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s operations center in Austin. We last polled Texans’ attitudes toward the president in the June 2017 University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. For a compendium of every poll item related to Trump going back to the 2016 primary and campaign, see this search result in our poll archive. 

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Subtweeting the 85th Texas Legislature

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

Most of the post-session coverage among the Texas political press has predictably focused on the politics of the big three and how much (or how little) of Greg Abbott’s agenda was acted on by the Legislature – coverage led by public signalling from both the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor. But a look at some of the lower profile aspects across the arc of both the regular and special sessions of the 85th Legislature reveals a lot about the nature of the for-now dormant legislature and, more broadly, Texas politics as the political mix shifts more heavily toward electoral politics.

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Slouching Toward Sine Die: A Special Session Driven by Party Politics, Not Public Demand

| By: Jim Henson and Joshua Blank

The lowered expectations for the special session make sense if one looks at conservative and Republican attitudes toward the legislature and statewide leaders at the conclusion of the regular session of the 85th Legislature. While Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Patrick, and the leadership of some of the state’s most vocal conservative interest groups have either suggested or implied widespread public demand for more action, polling suggests significant conservative contentment with the results of the 85th – and thus, little active demand for more legislation from the legislature at this time. 

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