More Judges Sought for TX Immigration Backlog:  The number of Texas-based immigration cases gridlocked in federal courts has increased by 58 percent in less than two years, with a total of 77,000 pending cases.  Julian Aguilar of the Texas Tribune reports that a Texas Congressman has proposed securing money for an additional 55 immigration judges to make a dent in the backlog.  Texas currently has 31 immigration judges.  A member of the House Appropriations Committee predicts that "every court or processing center [in Texas] will go up" when the judges are hired.

Shooting Spree Kills 9 at SC Church:  The 21-year-old man who opened fire inside of a South Carolina church shortly after 9 PM on Wednesday evening, killing nine people, was captured and arrested in a traffic stop on Thursday over 240 miles away from the crime scene.  Fox News reports that Dylann Roof sat in the pews of the Emanuel Episcopal Church, a historic African American church, for an hour before opening fire with a .45-caliber pistol he received for his 21^st birthday and fleeing the scene.  Since Roof is white and the shooting occurred at an African American church, the Department of Justice has opened up a hate crime investigation to determine if his actions were racially motivated.

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of TX on Confederate Flag License Plates:  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Texas authorities were justified in refusing the issuance of specialty license plates bearing a Confederate battle flag.  David G. Savage of the LA Times reports that in a 5-4 decision, the justices determined that a state-issued license plate is government speech rather than the private speech of a motorist, and thus, not applicable to the free speech clause.  The dissenting justices argue the opposite, calling it "blatant viewpoint discrimination" to reject one group's message as offensive.