The Bible Is Becoming Required Reading in This State

Conservatives are shutting down the House until the Senate passes voting restrictions, SCOTUS ruled against asylum seekers, and ICE harassed a poll worker over an Instagram post

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

Conservative hard-liners in the House have shut down most floor action until the Senate passes the SAVE America Act. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that migrants have no right to apply for asylum until they physically set foot in the country. Two ICE agents tracked down a Syracuse poll worker on Election Day and tried to make her delete an Instagram post. And Texas is set to make Bible stories required reading for 5.5 million public school students.

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Now, let’s dive in.

Conservatives Shut Down House Until Senate Passes Voting Restrictions

Congress has found a way to do even less than usual.

A bloc of House conservatives has effectively frozen most floor action until Congress moves on the SAVE America Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register and a photo ID to vote. The bill cleared the House but stalled in the Senate over Democratic opposition.

Speaker Mike Johnson needs near-unanimous GOP support to advance any procedural rule, and several hard-liners say they will tank every rule until the Senate acts. Leaders scrapped a rule vote Wednesday and punted two appropriations bills, throwing surveillance reauthorization and a third reconciliation package off course.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wrote that she will “not be voting to re-open the floor until the Senate gets back to Washington.” The Senate left for a two-week recess on Wednesday.

Trump joined in by canceling a signing ceremony for a popular bipartisan housing package, vowing not to sign it until the Senate passes SAVE America. Johnson floated a reconciliation grant program, which Rep. Lauren Boebert dismissed because blue states would simply opt out.

So the House has stopped legislating to pressure a Senate that is on vacation. Hard to twist arms that are currently holding margaritas.

SCOTUS Rules Migrants Can’t Apply for Asylum Outside U.S.

To apply for asylum, simply be inside the country you are being blocked from entering.

In a 6-3 decision, the conservative majority ruled that migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have no right to apply for asylum until they physically set foot in the country. The case turned on immigration law saying any noncitizen who “arrives in” the U.S. must be allowed to apply.

The ruling clears the way for the Trump administration to revive “metering,” a policy that lets agents turn back asylum seekers before they enter. It expanded dramatically during Trump’s first term, leaving people in makeshift camps on the Mexican side and pushing some to cross illegally through the Rio Grande or the Sonoran Desert.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor read her dissent from the bench, a signal of how strongly she objected. “The consequences of today’s decision are predictable. More people will die,” she wrote.

Alito then said he hadn’t known she planned to read from the bench, and would have read more of his own opinion had he known. His main takeaway from “more people will die” was that he should’ve talked longer.

Federal law still says people may seek asylum if they fear persecution over politics, race, or religion. They just have to do it telepathically, apparently.

The Supreme Court just made a fundamental right unreachable, and most of the media covered it like a footnote. AlterNet America exists to tell you what actually happened, but only because paid subscribers make it possible. If you’ve been reading for free, today is a good day to change that.

ICE Showed Up at a Polling Place to Police a Woman’s Instagram

ICE has entered the comments section, literally.

Paigelynne Gonyea, a poll worker in Syracuse, New York, said she got a phone call Tuesday from two ICE agents asking to meet. Not wanting to be alone with them, she invited them into her workplace.

The agents arrived with printed copies of her social media posts and her driver’s license. They handed her a notice saying they were investigating her for allegedly threatening ICE personnel, and instructed her to “remove and/or discontinue” the behavior.

Gonyea believes the trigger was a January post sharing a news article that named Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good. “I think today is a great day for Jonathan to be indicted,” she had written. She insists that is not doxing: she never posted his address or phone number.

This is not an isolated incident. In Texas this week, a man received a 30-year prison sentence for transporting left-wing zines — small, handmade artbooks — tied to a protest at an ICE detention facility.

Election law bars anyone but poll workers, inspectors, and voters from entering a polling place absent an emergency. The emergency here was that someone was mean online.

Texas Is About to Make the Bible Required Reading

Texas is solving education by adding church.

The Republican-controlled State Board of Education is voting Friday on a plan to make Bible stories required reading for public school students. The list runs from “David and Goliath” picture books in elementary school to the Book of Job in high school.

By fourth grade, students would read passages about Jesus. By middle school, several more, including parts of his most famous sermon. The readings lean heavily on the King James Bible and newer evangelical translations.

Last year Texas became the largest state to require every classroom to display the Ten Commandments. It has also allowed schools to hire chaplains and approved a Bible-infused elementary curriculum.

The list includes no texts from any other religious tradition, in classrooms full of Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, and agnostic children. Texas is home to 5.5 million public school students, about 11 percent of the total U.S. public school population.

The required reading would take effect in 2030. If nothing else, making the Bible required reading is a surefire way to make sure kids don’t read it.

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