Some laws go into effect immediately upon signing, some have years-long delays, but the enforcement date is usually explicitly written within a bill. If it is not, the law will automatically become enforced on the 91st day after the session.
Some of the more contentious concerns this session, like a pending THC ban, which would have taken effect Sept. 1, had the governor not vetoed it, remain up in the air as the first special session comes to an end with a quorum-breaking number of Democratic House members missing in action to stymie a GOP-led attempt to redraw congressional district boundaries. The THC ban, flood safety planning and a controversial bathroom bill are already back on the docket for the second special session, and will make a third one if it needs to be called, according to the governor.
"With the Texas House and Senate today announcing they are prepared to [end] on Friday, I will call the Texas Legislature back immediately for Special Session #2," Abbott said in a press release. "The Special Session #2 agenda will have the exact same agenda, with the potential to add more items critical to Texans. There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them. I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed."
Here are four of the new laws that have already been signed and will take effect Sept. 1:
Senate Bill 10: The Ten Commandments
Teachers who have yet to procure a framed 16-by-20-inch copy of the Ten Commandments have just two weeks to do so before it becomes enforceable Texas law.This law, already the center of litigation, requires teachers to display the Decalogue, but it didn’t provide any money to pay for the posters. Some districts have charitable organizations donating hundreds, if not thousands, of posters, but where the rest are coming from remains largely unknown.
House Bill 1481: Classroom Cell Phone Ban
Another big change for the education system is a classroom cellphone ban. The law does not create a formulaic structure for school districts to follow, but it does require schools to have some sort of cell phone ban.The Dallas Independent School District has introduced magnetically locked cell phone pouches, and students must turn in their cell phones at the beginning of each school day. If a student is found in violation of the new rule, their device is confiscated, and a parent must be present for free return. Alternatively, the student can pay to get their phone back at increasing costs based on offense frequency.
“So we want to remind everyone that the law requires us that we have absolutely none of those personal devices on our campuses,” said Dallas ISD Superintendent Dr. Stephanie Elizalde to Spectrum News 1.
House Bill 748: Trey's Law
Trey’s Law, originally filed by Rep. Jeff Leach, has ties to Highland Park. The law, which disallows nondisclosure agreements in civil settlements for sexual abuse cases, was named after a Highland Park teenager, Trey Carlock, who died by suicide following years of grooming and sexual abuse by a camp counselor.“By allowing these types of agreements, often horrific and systemic abuse is hidden from the public eye, resulting in few consequences for the perpetrators and often allowing for more people to be harmed by unknowingly interacting with a bad actor who's hidden behind a nondisclosure agreement,” Leach told the Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence in March. “We have a duty to protect victims.”
Senate Bill 13: Library Addition Approvals
Texas has banned about 540 books from public schools. But starting Sept. 1, school librarians will also have to seek approval from an advisory board that only meets twice a year for every new addition to their shelves. The advisory board is built by school districts and was attacked for significantly complicating the book procurement process. The bill was originally filed by Sen. Angela Paxton and claimed to keep explicit materials from children.Laney Hawes, a cofounder of the Texas Freedom To Read Project, told the Observer that librarians were racing to submit book application forms before the first of the month to avoid the new approval process, but it will be unavoidable in two weeks.
“It's very, very clear that, based on the bill, this is not just about sexually explicit material,” said Hawes. “Because if it were, then that's the only thing that would be in the bill, but it's not. … We want to point out that it's already against the law to have materials in schools that are legally defined as harmful to minors. No one wants truly obscene materials in schools, but they're also refusing to acknowledge that 18-year-olds are different from 5-year-olds.”
