Daily Briefing: Thursday, October 1, 2026

Attorney General Ken Paxton has sent a civil investigative demand to the American Bar Association as part of an antitrust investigation into how it accredits law schools, his office announced Wednesday. The office said it will examine whether accreditation requirements, including rules affecting faculty compensation, have restricted competition or raised the cost of legal education in Texas. The Supreme Court of Texas removed the ABA from its rules for bar admission in January, and law schools are now approved by the court itself, under its January 6 order.

Statewide taxable property value will reach an estimated $4.33 trillion in 2026, up 5.07% from $4.12 trillion in 2025, Comptroller Don Huffines’s office reported Wednesday. The office projects growth of 2.53% in 2027 and 5.66% in 2028, below the 6% to 10% annual increases of recent years. “I encourage the Legislature to continue providing meaningful property tax relief to Texas property owners,” Huffines said.

Huffines signed an executive order Wednesday directing his agency to propose an amendment to Rule 3.330 that would remove marketplace and platform fees from the definition of taxable data processing services, his office announced. A 2025 reading of the rule had taxed the fees online sellers and restaurants pay to platforms such as Amazon and DoorDash, on top of any sales tax on the purchase itself. The proposed amendment will be published in the Texas Register, followed by a 30-day public comment period.

A Texas House oversight committee took testimony on the relationship between district attorneys and the Wren Collective, a criminal justice reform group that has worked with Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, KSAT reported Wednesday. More than a dozen people testified, including relatives of crime victims and representatives of public safety groups. The governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker have said accountability for district attorneys will be a focus of the 2027 session, the station reported.

The same committee took up adding New Mexico counties to Texas late Wednesday. The attorney general’s office told members that two states move a shared line by consent, and lawmakers of both parties said the people affected have to agree, the Partisan reported Thursday.

Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana went to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to challenge abortion shield laws in California, Massachusetts and New York that protect providers who send abortion pills into states with bans, the Associated Press reported. The court can hear disputes between states directly but rarely does. “This is the first time we’ve seen a state or group of states suing other states to challenge the validity of shield laws,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis.

Red Deer-South MLA Jason Stephan, a member of Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party, told CBC News he voted for Option 2 on question 10 of the province’s October 19 referendum, which directs the government to begin the legal process toward a binding referendum on separation. “I’ve always supported having a referendum on independence because I want Ottawa to be compelled to fix the things that are broken,” he said.

The Texas Nationalist Movement’s Caldwell County team is listed for a clipboarding event at First Friday Lockhart, starting from Lockhart City Hall at 5 p.m. Friday, October 2, according to the TNM calendar. The Llano County team has an information table on the Llano Courthouse Square at 8 a.m. Saturday, October 3, the calendar shows.