The county north of Houston adopted the guidelines amid a growing number of book bans in school districts and a new state law that supporters claim protects children from inappropriate material.

Legal experts say a 5th Circuit decision to uphold part of a Texas law regulating adult entertainment websites conflicts with U.S. Supreme Court precedent regarding minors’ access to obscene material online.

Some 50 Texas sheriffs and numerous elected officials have attended trainings on the unsupported notion that sheriffs can single-handedly overrule state and federal law. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which offered state peace officers credit for the seminars, is now investigating.

A rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution has sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $43.2 million, a record price for a document or book sold at auction.

According to NPD BookScan, which tracks around 85 percent of the print market, more than 1 million copies of the Constitution in various editions were sold since Trump took office. The sales are especially notable because the Constitution can be read or downloaded for free, including from the U.S. government. (National Archives via AP)NEW YORK – At the National Constitution Center, in Philadelphia, they like to joke that what's bad for the country is often good for the organization. Along with dystopian novels and White House tell-alls, the U.S. Constitution has been a best-seller during the Trump years. The sales are especially notable because the Constitution can be read or downloaded for free, including from the US government (https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript).

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, against Alabama over conditions in the state prisons, saying the state is failing to protect male inmates from inmate-on-inmate violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler, File)MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Alabama over conditions in the state prisons, saying the state is failing to protect male inmates from inmate-on-inmate violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff. The lawsuit comes after the Justice Department twice released investigative reports that accused the state of violating prisoner’s rights. Alabama had been in negotiations with the Justice Department since the first 2019 report in the hopes of staving off a lawsuit, but federal officials said the state has "failed or refused to correct" the unconstitutional conditions. The 24-page lawsuit said that conditions in Alabama prisons have gotten worse since the initial findings — with homicides increasing and prisons becoming even more overcrowded than in 2016 when the investigation was initiated.