AT THE TIME it seemed they had outdone themselves. In the past two legislative sessions Texas Republicans outlawed abortion, allowed gun-owners to carry their weapons without permits, gave state judges the power to deport immigrants, banned diversity offices in public universities and nixed all sorts of progressive city laws. In a note to funders last summer, the Republican state party chair declared that the flurry of policies amounted to “probably the most sweeping conservative change ever passed in our Texas state legislature”.