President Donald Trump greets Lt. Gov. of Texas Dan Patrick during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Students, parents, librarians and other community members held a press conference on Monday, August 26, 2024 in Sugar Land, TX to express their opposition before the Fort Bend Independent School District board voted to approve a library book policy that critics have called the “most restrictive (policy) in the state of Texas.” The board voted against the wishes of parents and staff who came to speak before and during the meeting. Critics said this library policy could result in hundreds of books being taken off Fort Bend ISD library shelves.

Right-wing thought police would enjoy expanded powers to regulate what universities teach and what books libraries shelve if two bills moving through the Texas Legislature become law.

The direct attacks on intellectual freedom mark the latest battle in Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Christian nationalist culture war to ban independent thinking.

At Patrick’s behest, state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, introduced Senate Bill 37 to end instruction and research into ethnicity and minority experiences, such as Black Studies. The bill would empower regents to impose a whitewashed curriculum that glosses over the most critical lessons from American history.

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Creighton says SB37 would allow elected officials to prioritize “degrees of value” by putting regents in charge of curriculum instead of........

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