Bad News From Texas

It seems like all the bad news comes out the south and mid-west, and this is really bad news.

Texas Can Resume 'Child Abuse' Probes of Trans-Supportive Parents
But the Texas Supreme Court, in allowing the probes to continue, questioned the authority of the governor to order them.
The Advocate
By Trudy Ring
May 13, 2022


Texas authorities can resume investigating supportive parents of transgender children for child abuse, although they are not legally required to do so, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Friday.

An appeals court had blocked the investigations while a lawsuit against the state is heard. But the Texas Supreme Court, ruling in an emergency appeal from state officials, asserted that the appeals court had “abused its discretion,” The New York Times reports.

However, the state cannot investigate the family and psychologist who sued, the high court said, as that would cause “irreparable harm.” And the court cast doubt on the authority of the governor to order the probes in the first place, saying whether to investigate any case is at the discretion of the state’s child welfare agency.

[…]

The Supreme Court, in allowing the investigations to resume, did rule that Abbott and Paxton could not “directly control” the DFPS probes. But it said the appeals court did not have the authority to halt them statewide.

And Texas Tribune reported…

Texas Supreme Court allows child abuse investigations into families of transgender teens to continue
The high court also raised questions about why the state opened these investigations in the first place, noting that the child welfare agency is not bound by directives from the governor.
By Eleanor Klibanoff
May 13, 2022


Texas’ child welfare agency remains blocked from investigating the family of a transgender teen that sued the state in March, but can once again investigate other families that provide gender-affirming care after the Supreme Court of Texas struck down a statewide injunction Friday.

Though it overturned the injunction on procedural grounds, the high court raised questions about why the Department of Family and Protective Services opened these investigations in the first place. The court affirmed in Friday’s ruling that neither Attorney General Ken Paxton nor Gov. Greg Abbott had any grounds to direct the agency’s actions.

Meanwhile NBC News reported that,

An increasing number of child welfare workers in Texas are quitting because of a directive from Gov. Greg Abbott that requires them to investigate child abuse claims against parents suspected of providing gender-affirming care to their transgender children.

[…]

Davis is reportedly not alone. More than a half dozen Child Protective Services employees in the state told The Texas Tribune this month that they have either resigned or were looking for new jobs as a result of Abbott’s directive. 

Sadly these types of laws are spreading through out the Republican states.