File the Bill: A Pledge Comes Due, Meta Digs In, and ‘National Divorce’ Misses the Point

Daniel Miller came home from a packed run of road meetings for an overdue Late Night Coffee Talk, and the headline is the clock. The bill filing deadline is March 11, and the Texas Independence Referendum bill, effectively last session’s measure with corrected ballot language, is sitting at Legislative Council rather than filed. The two surviving House members who signed HB 1359 last time are Steve Toth and Brian Slayton, and Slayton also signed the Texas First Pledge, which commits him to file or co-author the bill every session he serves. Other legislators are lined up but want a filed bill before they commit. So the ask is narrow and the pressure is on: call Slayton’s office, be polite and firm, and ask him to honor his word. The bus, as Miller puts it, drives itself once it is filed. TNM has its strongest legislative team yet, with subject matter experts on military, economic, and independence-referendum questions, and the measure costs nothing because the vote would run during the normal constitutional amendment election.

On the lawsuit against Meta, Miller could only say so much, but the takeaways were sharp. A routine scheduling conference happened in Judge Truncale’s chambers, and the judge is treating the case seriously. Meta showed no interest in settling. Their strategy is to outspend TNM, bury the case in paper, and grind it down on legal fees, and their lawyers were notably eager to depose Miller. Two pending Supreme Court matters will shape the timeline: oral arguments over Section 230 protections were heard that very day, and a ruling on the constitutionality of the law TNM sued under is expected by June. If the Court strikes that law down, the case collapses, so the schedule is paced around those decisions. A dedicated donation page for the suit is coming.

Then there was Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “national divorce.” Miller welcomes any conversation that gets people talking, but he took the term apart. National divorce is a slogan, not a plan or a path. It presupposes the United States is a nation, when it is a political institution made of sovereign states. There is no going to Congress to sort red states from blue. Each state has to decide for itself, Texas for Texas, the same way every other state must choose. He also rejected the civil war smear: no one is calling for civil war. The federal government is the one inviting balkanization by refusing to devolve power, and the only thing that gets its attention is a state like Texas putting independence to its people in a free and fair vote.

Questions answered in this episode

• What is the update on the filing of the Texas Independence Referendum bill?
• Is there a coordinated day to call Representative Brian Slayton’s office and ask him to file it?
• What can supporters actually do to get the bill filed?
• Is it true that every major company would leave Texas if TEXIT happened?
• Can you speak to the Meta court hearing and what came out of it?
• If the bill passes the House and Senate by a slim margin, what are the odds Governor Abbott signs it so it reaches the November ballot?
• Will you be back in San Antonio?
• How would you describe the opposition, both the politicians and the everyday Texans who are against the referendum?