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Good morning,

We live in a hot-take culture of poorly formed opinions too often driven by personal animus rather than reasoned consideration. I've come to learn that, sometimes, the best thing I can say ... is nothing. More on what that means below.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, Dec. 5, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

SCOTUS Keeps New Texas Congressional Map For 2026 In a 6-3 decision announced yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the new congressional boundaries adopted earlier this year by Texas lawmakers to stay in effect for the 2026 elections. As Sydnie Henry reports [[link removed]], left-wing groups had sought to block the map and force a return to previous boundary lines.

A divided lower court panel sided with the Democrats, but issued its ruling after candidate filing had begun. Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the lower court injunction would disrupt Texas’ election calendar and interfere with the state’s constitutional authority to draw its own congressional districts.

By granting Paxton’s request, the Supreme Court has cleared the way for the state to conduct upcoming congressional races under what President Donald Trump called the "Big Beautiful Map."

"Texas is paving the way as we take our country back, district by district, state by state. This map reflects the political climate of our state and is a massive win for Texas and every conservative who is tired of watching the left try to upend the political system with bogus lawsuits." – Attorney General Ken Paxton [[link removed]] Class-Action Lawsuit Seeks to Halt Ten Commandments Classroom Displays Texas’ battle over required displays of the Ten Commandments in government school classrooms intensified again this week as civil rights groups filed a sweeping class-action suit aiming to block the law in every school district. Michael Wilson has the details [[link removed]].

A law was passed and enacted earlier this year requiring every public elementary and secondary classroom to display a donated Ten Commandments poster meeting specific size and textual requirements.

The newest case—filed in San Antonio federal court—seeks to have the Ten Commandments display mandate declared unconstitutional and to bar statewide enforcement. It comes after two previous lawsuits secured preliminary injunctions blocking the law in only a handful of districts.

Attorney General Ken Paxton has instructed all districts not covered by earlier injunctions to comply with the law. His office has already begun legal action against three districts for allegedly failing to do so. Texas Universities Continue Accepting Students From Hostile Nations Despite warnings from national security experts, universities in the Lone Star State allowed more than 4,000 students from China, Russia, and Iran to enroll for the Fall 2025 semester. Each of these countries has been identified as a national security threat by the Director of National Intelligence in the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment. Robert Montoya examines [[link removed]] the data he obtained through public information requests.

For this academic year, the University of Texas at Austin accepted 1,377 students from China, 70 from Iran, and 31 from Russia. Texas A&M University, meanwhile, accepted 917 from China, 179 from Iran, and 18 from Russia. The University of Houston accepted 1,188 from the three countries, compared to Texas Tech, which took in just 277.

In 2023, national security specialists warned that China’s 2017 national intelligence law compels citizens to engage in espionage when abroad. Texas businessman Kyle Bass has advocated shutting down Chinese Communist Party‑linked educational exchanges and programs due to the threat of espionage.

Jennifer Richmond of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said the students were “China’s influence operation in American higher education.” San Antonio Teacher Arrested for Sexual Assault of Student Erin Anderson reports [[link removed]] that a high school music teacher in San Antonio has been accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student, and police believe there may be more victims.

Edwardo Cantu Jr., was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child. He is a mariachi teacher at McCollum High School in the Harlandale Independent School District. According to the San Antonio Police Department, Cantu allegedly assaulted the girl on November 10 while on campus during school hours.

The victim told authorities she was alone with Cantu in his classroom when he kissed her, then locked the door and assaulted her. School surveillance video confirmed details of the girl’s allegations.

State records show Cantu has been certified to teach since 2009. Harlandale ISD officials have said they are cooperating with police.OTHER EDUCATION NEWS The Aldine Independent School District employed Derrick Banks as a teacher for more than two years despite active arrest warrants accusing him of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy. Banks, 39, was hired by Aldine ISD in August 2023 to teach agriculture science at Eisenhower High School. Two months later, on October 17, 2023, Houston police obtained warrants charging him with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14. Banks continued working on campus until his arrest in late October of this year, more than two years after the warrants were issued.

Texas Education Agency records show Banks had previously worked in Aldine ISD as far back as 2011 and later lost his state certification in 2016 following disciplinary action. Details of that prior case are not available.

According to a district spokesman, Banks “passed all hiring protocols,” including a background check. Women’s Privacy Act Takes Effect After years of failed attempts, long-debated legislation to keep men out of women’s private spaces [[link removed]] officially took effect yesterday in Texas. The new law, authored by State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), requires state agencies and political subdivisions to designate multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, and other sex-separated spaces strictly according to biological sex.

Legislation to protect women’s private spaces had been introduced multiple times since 2017, but was continually killed in the House. It finally passed during the August special session.

The law also directs [[link removed]] the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to house inmates according to biological sex. This Sunday on REAL TEXANS Tony Buzbee [[link removed]]

For this week's edition of Real Texans, I sat down with Houston's Tony Buzbee, one of the state's most influential trial attorneys. We discussed his service in the Marine Corps, his legal practice, and the governance of higher education.

New interviews with REAL TEXANS [[link removed]] every Sunday!

Friday Reflection

Just Shut Up [[link removed]]

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

There is a temptation in our hot-take culture for everyone to have an opinion about everything. I know this battle well; I resist the temptation to tweet an ill-informed opinion on things I have absolutely no knowledge of. Three words come quickly to mind when I feel the urge to opine on something happening in the news: “Just shut up.”

We all know the adage that it is “better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” The general truthfulness of the sentiment is revealed in the fact that it is assigned to everyone from Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain to Confucius and John Maynard Keynes.

In the Book of Proverbs [[link removed]], we find, “Sin is not ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues.”

Of course, silence is not always golden. Ecclesiastes [[link removed]] reminds us that there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”

Wisdom is knowing when to shut up, when to speak, and when to act. To speak well and take appropriate action, we must first be willing to shut up, to think, and to pray.

Here is what I know from Scripture as readily as from experience: we live in a fallen world. If given the opportunity and left to our own devices, all of us can be the very worst versions of ourselves—especially in our speech. When that happens, we need friends who will tell us to just shut up.

I probably don’t need to remind you of this, but there are bad ideas and repugnant thoughts. As Western Civilization has declined into a cesspool of libertine thought, some on the right have decided that our liberty gives us the right to be just as boorish as those on the left, especially if we can justify it serving a greater end. Yet, that is just as bad as those who retreat into perpetual silence.

We have an obligation to be informed and engaged.

Means are rarely justified by the ends; processes and methods actually matter. We will succeed in pushing culture upward and forward to the extent that we can resist the urge to be intemperate in our thoughts and words as surely as in our deeds. We must think, speak, and act … but do so correctly.

Whatever the woke counterparts on the right might suggest, it is not a weakness to exercise restraint.

In the free market of goods and services, bad products don’t get purchased. There is no moral imperative to cheer our friends when they buy a bad car or promote a disgusting restaurant. The free market of ideas is no different. None of us has an obligation to tolerate a bad idea or promote a disgusting philosophy.

As citizens in this self-governing republic, we can only be the leaders our founders envisioned us to be if we each exercise deliberative wisdom, holding our tongues while speaking life into culture.

Quote-Unquote

"You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks."

– Winston Churchill

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