Latest news with #CivitasInstitute
Wall Street Journal
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Texas and Western Civilization
A rare bright spot in American higher education these days is the trend of universities starting new schools for civic inquiry and debate. The latest cheer goes to the University of Texas, which is making a major commitment to teaching the ideas of Western civilization and the American constitutional order. On Thursday the UT Board of Regents announced a $100 million investment in the School of Civic Leadership, the biggest sum so far by a public university in a program focused on civics education and constitutional principles. The money will help renovate a building on campus to become a permanent location for the civics school and the Civitas Institute, an in-house think tank. The school will enroll 100 freshmen in a Civic Honors major this fall.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UT System announces $100 million investment into civic leadership school
The University of Texas System announced on Thursday a $100 million investment for a permanent building for its School of Civic Leadership, a college created to house programs to help teach 'principles of freedom.' The nine-figure investment will go toward the renovation of the Biological Laboratories building on the University of Texas at Austin campus into a space for the new school. The school welcomes its inaugural class in the fall. Construction on the school is expected to be completed by 2028, according to a UT news release. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov Dan Patrick and several UT officials gathered at UT Austin to celebrate the announced funding for the school. In a news release, Abbott said the $100 million investment will 'restore classical civics and leadership education' at UT. 'We need to get back on the pathway of ensuring that we're educating our students with the leading concepts that have led to the great country we are today,' Abbott said. The school, which was established in 2023, and the think tank Civitas Institute, which it houses, were developed by UT officials alongside conservative lawmakers and donors including Patrick. In 2021, Patrick and conservative donors assisted in the creation of Civitas' predecessor, the Liberty Institute, which sparked faculty concerns on the college's purpose. Programs at the school like its Society of Fellows were made to 'foster a thoughtful admiration for Western Civilization, constitutional government, and economic liberty,' according to its website. UT's investment in the school, once framed by Patrick as a way to fight critical race theory in colleges, comes as state legislators are considering a bill that would limit how universities can teach about race, history and inequality. While Senate Bill 37 passed in the Senate, a House committee proposed changes to the legislation that would roll back many of its stricter provisions. The school's inaugural freshman class will have 100 students, and the UT System said they are 'on track' to hire 20 dedicated tenured or tenure-track professors for the school by Fall 2026. Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP auditor uses his new appointment power to give Republicans control over NC elections board
Using new powers granted by the General Assembly, State Auditor Dave Boliek appointed new members to North Carolina's powerful State Board of Elections on Thursday, giving Republicans a majority for the first time since 2016. Boliek announced his appointment of three Republicans to the five-member board, one of whom currently serves as a member. 'Managing our elections is no small task. It takes time, dedication, and professionalism,' Boliek said in a statement. 'We need full confidence in our elections, and I'd like to thank these individuals for their willingness to serve.' The Republican appointees are: Francis De Luca of Wilmington. De Luca previously served as president of the the Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank. He is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and also previously served on the State Ethics Commission. Robert Anthony Rucho of Catawba County. Rucho served in the North Carolina Senate for nearly 17 years as a Republican. Stacy Clyde Eggers IV of Boone. Eggers, a lawyer, is a current member of the State Board of Elections. The Democratic appointees are both current members of the board: Siobhan O'Duffy Millen of Raleigh. Millen is a retired lawyer. Jeff Carmon of Snow Hill. Carmon is an attorney and has served as secretary of the board since 2023. Democrats had presented a list of four nominees to Boliek, who picked two. The others, Stella Anderson and J. Anthony Penry, had previously served on the board. In a letter announcing the nominees to Boliek, Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, called the unprecedented power shift a 'hostile takeover.' 'We fervently believe that established precedent and our constitutional allocation of powers has given our elected governor the right to name the members of the Board of Elections,' she said. 'Republicans' passage of an unconstitutional bill wrenching that power from the governor's office and giving it to you is an abuse of power and a disservice to the people of North Carolina. You were not elected to do this duty. It has been given to you, not by the people of the state, but by partisan politicians.' Boliek's appointments come just one day after the state Court of Appeals allowed a law to take effect stripping Democratic Gov. Josh Stein of his power to select the board's members. A bipartisan trial court had previously declared that change unconstitutional, but the appeals court reversed its ruling in a decision by three unnamed judges without holding arguments. Stein asked the state Supreme Court to halt the appeals court's ruling before Boliek gained the powers, but justices did not issue a ruling in time. The power shift upends the practice in place for over a century in which the governor alone has had the power to appoint members of election boards. That arrangement also allowed the governor to appoint a 3-2 majority of members from their own party. Republican state lawmakers have tried multiple times to shift this process in their favor since Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, won election in 2016. All of their previous attempts were either blocked by courts or rejected by voters when proposed as a constitutional amendment. But rather than giving the appointment power to themselves, as lawmakers have attempted to do in the past, Republicans tried a different strategy in December. In the final days of the GOP's veto-proof supermajority, they enacted Senate Bill 382 — which was initially billed as a Helene relief package — to strip the governor and other newly elected Democrats of their powers. SB 382 shifts election board appointments to the auditor, a move they argue keeps the power within the executive branch and therefore does not violate the state constitution. It is an entirely unique setup, with no other state auditor in the entire country having similar powers over elections. While Thursday's appointments dealt with the State Board of Elections, Boliek will also be able to flip the majority of all 100 county boards of elections starting on June 25, barring any court intervention. Democrats have warned that Republicans could use their newfound influence over the elections board to assist Jefferson Griffin in his ongoing attempt to overturn his loss in the 2024 state Supreme Court race. 'I fear that this decision is the latest step in the partisan effort to steal a seat on the Supreme Court,' Stein said in a statement Wednesday. 'No emergency exists that can justify the Court of Appeals' decision to interject itself at this point. The only plausible explanation is to permit the Republican State Auditor to appoint a new State Board of Elections that will try to overturn the results of the Supreme Court race.' While lawmakers gave Boliek the power to appoint members to the board, he must select his picks from a list of nominees presented by the chair of each political party. All of the appointees have been involved with elections in some way, either previously serving on the board or being involved in high-profile election litigation. Rucho, who previously served as chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee, was a defendant in a 2019 gerrymandering case at the U.S. Supreme Court in which he defended the state's Republican-drawn congressional map. A district court had struck down the map, agreeing with challengers that it was illegally gerrymandered to favor Republicans. But Rucho appealed, arguing that claims of partisan gerrymandering were not within the jurisdiction of courts. In a 5-4 decision, the conservative justices on the Supreme Court agreed with Rucho, setting a nationwide precedent that prevents litigants from bringing federal cases over partisan gerrymandering. De Luca has also been involved in at least one voting lawsuit. In 2016, as head of the Civitas Institute, he sued to delay the final vote count in North Carolina's elections. His challenge dealt with voters who used same-day registration, which allows residents to register to vote and cast their ballot at the same time. De Luca argued that there wasn't enough time to verify the addresses of same-day registrants before their votes were counted. 'We think same-day registration is a bad policy,' De Luca said at the time. 'This is the about the best way we can use the courts to show that it is.' Republicans attempted to nominate De Luca to the elections board in 2017 as part of a previous attempt to wrest control of elections from the governor. That effort ultimately failed and De Luca never joined the board. As for Eggers, he has served on the State Board of Elections since 2018. Prior to that, he served on the Watauga County Board of Elections from 2005 to 2013. The Democrats selected by Boliek are both current members of the board, originally appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
