“BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1.Article I, Texas Constitution, is amended by adding Section 37 to read as follows: Sec.37. a)A parent has the inherent right to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child and to make decisions for the upbringing of the parent’s child. (b)The state or a political subdivision of this state shall not interfere with the rights of a parent described by Subsection (a) of this section unless the interference is: (1)essential to further a compelling governmental interest; and (2)narrowly tailored to accomplish that compelling governmental interest.”
If you still believe the government is here to protect and care for you, this will thrill you to read. You probably won’t read the last 2 sentences because you will be so excited. If that is you, have a cup or something stronger, cuz this is another time that the government is blowing smoke at us, just like they are doing with property taxes and homestead exemptions.
What is a “compelling governmental interest”? The Resolution doesn’t say.
Who will define what such an interest is? The Resolution doesn’t say.
What is the level of governmental interest required to trigger Sec 1? The Resolution doesn’t say?
Will this resolution be applied to groups of children or to individual children? The Resolution doesn’t say.
We already have a court system which deals with individual children. Will this Resolution supercede it? The Resolution doesn’t say.
You should have the point by now. This resolution has more holes in it than my spaghetti colander. That needs fixin’.
Bills, and resolutions should judged by the bad things that can be done by their words, not by any possible claims of benevolence for all.
A compelling governmental interest will be the equivalent of anything that a legislator brings up and gets agreement on. A special interest group will almost certainly be the impetus behind such an act.
So goodby, school choice, cuz keeping the public schools open is a compelling governmental interest.
DEI, CRT and putting porn in school libraries and textbooks has already been a compelling governmental interest. This resolution would make such interests constitutionally required.
I’m sure that smart lawyers and activists can use such a resolution to deny voters, school boards and even judges any control over our schools, and to parts of our lives that I haven’t thought of.
There is nothing in the resolution that would even be a speed bump. In deed, the resolution would serve as a guarantee once passed as an amendment.
We can do better.
Joe Dantone Medina, Texas
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