Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth filed a bill to allow discriminatory student clubs in public or private universities. Yes, even racist, white-only clubs. He also filed the ‘Come and Take It’ Firearm Protection Bill.

At 33, state Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, is in his eighth week as an elected official.

As one of Tarrant County’s vaunted “Five Freshmen” in the Texas House, he’s due a freshman mistake.

This was a big one: He filed a bill to allow discriminatory student clubs in public or private universities. Yes, even racist, white-only clubs.

“We didn’t get our point across the right way,” Krause said Friday, saying his House Bill 360 is “inartfully” written and was meant to protect campus Christian clubs.

As filed, the Fort Worth lawyer’s bill would cut off state money to any university that bars campus clubs that select members by “beliefs or status, including race, gender and sexual orientation.”

In other words, a college would be stripped of state grants for disbanding the Aryan Nation Club.

“It was meant to make sure like-minded people could gather,” Krause said Friday, calling from California after preaching a reunion-weekend chapel service at his alma mater, San Diego Christian College.

Krause said the bill protects First Amendment freedom of association.

In a news release on the Web, he was quoted calling the bill “near and dear to my heart” and adding: “Ensuring that public colleges and universities in Texas are prohibited from invading and removing those First Amendment rights is essential.”

But as written, the bill also robs private universities — many of them faith-based — of the First Amendment freedom to uphold campus values for clubs.

This started in 2010, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that universities could prohibit Christian-only campus clubs. Last year, private Vanderbilt University in Tennessee prohibited closed, faith-specific clubs.

Krause’s bill was filed Jan. 7.

It has no co-author or sponsor.Read more here:

Representative Matt Krause Files “Come and Take it” Firearm Protection Bill

 AUSTIN, TEXAS – Yesterday, State Representative Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth) filed H.B. 928, which deals with the enforcement of federal firearm regulations by Texas state and local law enforcement agents. H.B. 928 is different from any other bill protecting Texas gun owners that has been proposed in the State Legislature thus far this session, as it creates a legal framework for state-directed cooperation, or noncooperation, putting Texas in control of the issue.

H.B. 928 prevents our state resources from being used for the purpose of enforcing federal regulations on firearms. Simply put, if passed: No state/local law enforcement agency/officer may be deputized for the express purpose of enforcing a federal firearm regulation, and no state/local law enforcement agency/officer may aid a federal agency/officer in the enforcement of a federal firearm regulation that does not also exist in Texas law (i.e. bans on cosmetic features, magazine limitations, outright prohibitions, etc.). Texas is a large state, with millions of law-abiding gun owners. The federal government cannot possibly enforce intrusive regulations without the aid of the state. H.B. 928 will deny them that aid.

“As a constitutional attorney, I have spent a great deal of time considering the best options for the state legislature to pursue in order to protect Texas gun owners,” said Rep. Matt Krause. “If passed, H.B. 928 would become state law which directs state resources on state conduct, and as such is beyond the scope of a federal court challenge. It both recognizes federal authority to enforce federal regulations, while also asserting Texas’ sovereignty and power to cooperate, or not cooperate, with the federal government where it can within the rule of law.”

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