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Amicus moves to protect voters' rights while Board is asleep at the switch

Late last night, Andy Taylor, counsel for Amicus Jenny Morace, filed the attached motion arguing against any change to the currently scheduled May 2022 Trustee election date.


This filing is in response to Barry Abrams' attempt to disenfranchise all voters in SBISD by cancelling the scheduled May 2022 Trustee election.


Mr. Taylor's motion reads, in part:

Plaintiff’s Motion for Preliminary Injunction should be in all things denied, the May 2022 election, which has already begun, should not be postponed, the current election should be allowed to continue and be completed under the current at-large system.

It also adds:

Plaintiff’s request to postpone the election should be summarily rejected under both well-established federal and state law. “[P]erhaps the most fundamental individual liberty of our people,” Justice Black famously wrote, is “the right of each man to participate in the self-government of his society.”

This is a seemingly favorable development, insofar as somebody is bothering to object to this absurd notion promoted by Barry Abrams that SBISD should change its election procedures to fit his whim. You can read his divisive injunction here.


It still escapes us why counsel for the district itself couldn't seem to make these arguments in its filing yesterday. We are reluctant to jump to conclusions, but there is a dramatic inconsistency between the board's unequivocal written statement on Feb 2, 2022 that:

"[T]he District opposes the injunction."

and yesterdays filing, which says the exact opposite:

"Defendants are nevertheless not opposed to the Court ordering the May 2022 school board election be delayed until November 2022"

That's quite a flip-flop in less than two weeks. It should be noted that the emphasis above is included in the filing, we did not add it.


So, not only did the districts filing yesterday represent a complete 180 degree turn from the board's prior public assurances relied upon by candidates as they filed to run for office throughout February, it made sure to yank that rug out from under them extra hard -- with bold AND italics in the typeface.


We will continue to dig into this, and more updates will be forthcoming.


To that end, if anyone would like to share information that can clarify these conflicting statements by the board and its lawyers, we are all ears at halsey@savesbisd.org. We can also be reached by text at 713-843-7577.


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