AUSTIN, Texas —

Doling out pardons is a holiday tradition for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who around every Christmas grants them to a handful of ordinary citizens, typically for minor offenses committed years or decades ago.

But one name stands out on his desk: George Floyd.

Related video above: AP reporter on Derek Chauvin's guilty plea

Abbott has not said whether he will posthumously pardon Floyd this year for a 2004 drug arrest in Houston by a former officer whose police work is no longer trusted by prosecutors. Texas' parole board — stacked with Abbott appointees — unanimously recommended a pardon for Floyd in October.

Since then, the two-term Republican governor, who is up for reelection in 2022, has given no indication of whether he will grant what would be only the second posthumous pardon in Texas history. Floyd, who was Black, spent much of his life in Houston before moving to Minnesota, where his death under the knee of a white police officer last year led to a U.S. reckoning on race and policing.

"It doesn't matter who you think George Floyd was, or what you think he stood for or didn't stand for," said Allison Mathis, a public defender in Houston who submitted Floyd's pardon application. "What matters is he didn't do this. It's important for the governor to correct the record to show he didn't do this."

A spokeswoman for Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.

Pardons restore the rights of the convicted and forgive them in the eyes of the law. Floyd's family and supporters said a posthumous pardon for him in Texas would show a commitment to accountability.

In February 2004, Floyd was arrested in Houston for selling $10 worth of crack in a police sting. He pleaded guilty to a drug charge and served 10 months in prison.

His case happened to be among dozens that prosecutors revisited in the fallout over a deadly drug raid in 2019 that resulted in murder charges against an officer, Gerald Goines, who is no longer with the Houston force. Prosecutors say Goines lied to obtain a search warrant in the 2019 raid that left a husband and wife dead, and the office of Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has since dismissed more than 160 drug convictions tied to Goines.

Goines has pleaded not guilty and his attorneys accuse Ogg of launching the review for political gain.

Abbott has several primary challengers from the far right, and his ongoing silence about a potential pardon for Floyd has raised questions by Mathis and others over whether political calculations are at play. His office has not responded to those charges.

Abbott attended Floyd's memorial service last year in Houston, where he met with the family and floated the idea of a "George Floyd Act" that would take aim at police brutality. But Abbott never publicly supported such a measure months later when lawmakers returned to the Capitol, where Republicans instead made police funding a priority.

State Sen. Royce West, a Democrat who carried the "George Floyd Act" in the Senate, said he understands the politics if Abbott was waiting until after the GOP primary elections in March. But he said the governor should act on the recommendation.

"As he's always said, he is a law and order governor," West said. "And this would be following the law."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday penned a letter to the Texas Association of School Boards and asked the group to remove books he claims "promote pornographic or obscene material," firing the latest salvo in the political fight to control what's taught in state classrooms.

The letter, addressed to Texas Association of School Boards executive director Dr. Dan Troxell, says the board has an "obligation to determine the extent to which such materials exist or are used in our schools and to remove any such content."

Abbott did not cite specific examples of books that may contain such materials.

The association has not yet issued an official response, but a spokesperson said in a statement to NPR that the group "did not believe it had authority over school districts" to remove books from libraries and "does not set the standards for instructional materials, including library books."

CNN reports that Abbott's letter came a week after state lawmaker Jeff Cason called on Texas' attorney general to investigate books he considered to be "pornography."

Also, last week, state Rep. Matt Krause announced he was leading an investigation into a list of 850 books that may be in school libraries despite "objections from students, parents and taxpayers." A Dallas Morning News investigation has found that a significant portion of the books on the list were written by women, people of color or LGBTQ authors.

Texas is just one of several states where conservative lawmakers are taking the "culture wars" into the classroom. Republican Glenn Youngkin prevailed in the Virginia gubernatorial election earlier this week after raising concerns about the use of "critical race theory" in classrooms.

Several large companies based in Texas — including two of America's largest airliners — have said they plan to keep COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees in place, siding with federal authorities in a showdown between the White House and the governor of Texas.

American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and IBM all said Tuesday that they would continue to require their workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, even though Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an order on Monday banning private businesses from enforcing such mandates.

In a statement to The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth-based American Airlines said that "we believe the federal vaccine mandate supersedes any conflicting state laws, and this does not change anything for American."

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines issued a similar statement to The Austin-American Statesman.

The company said they were choosing to comply with an order by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration — which will require businesses with over 100 employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated — because the White House order "supersedes any state mandate or law."

On Tuesday, Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told CNBC that he is opposed to vaccine mandates but that his company will still require the shots because he is required to by federal law.

"I've never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate," Kelly said. "But the executive order from President Biden mandates that all federal employees and then all federal contractors, which covers all the major airlines, have to have a (vaccine) mandate (by Dec. 8)."

IBM told Bloomberg that it would keep in place a vaccine mandate for workers at its Texas office because the company has contracts with the federal government, meaning under Biden administration rules, it must require its employees to be vaccinated.

"IBM is a federal contractor and must comply with federal requirements, which direct employees of federal contractors to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by December 8th or obtain a medical or religious accommodation," a spokesperson for the company said. "We will continue to protect the health and safety of IBM employees and clients, and we will continue to follow federal requirements."

The resistance from high-profile employers could set up a legal battle, should the state of Texas choose to file a lawsuit.

According to The Associated Press, new cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations linked to the virus have fallen in recent weeks. However, the state has seen more than 67,000 total coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic.

In May, the Supreme Court agreed to hear oral arguments from Mississippi's case, Dobbs v. Jackson's Women's Health Organization, in an attempt to ban abortion after 15 weeks.

This decision came around the same time Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the country's strictest ban on abortion into law, known as the Senate Bill-8. The law prohibits women from getting the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy or when cardiac activity is detected.

In a five-to-four decision, the Supreme Court declined to block the Texas ban, effectively changing the precedent of the 1973 landmark decision of Roe v. Wade that made abortion a constitutional right. The law forced many clinics to close and incentivizes individuals to enforce the ban by placing a $10,000 bounty on anyone who helps women get an abortion.

After the Supreme Court's ruling, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas to protect the constitutional rights of women.

Also, in early October, a federal judge issued an order to block the law, but Abbott immediately appealed the decision.

Similarly, Mississippi's only abortion clinic is in jeopardy. In the South and Midwest, where abortion is already difficult to access, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, it will eliminate the procedure entirely.

In December, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether to uphold Mississippi's abortion restriction. The court generally releases the majority of its decisions in mid-June.

In this episode of Clarified, learn about how the 48-year precedent of Roe v. Wade is being challenged.

TYLER, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law an overhaul of the state’s election rules following months of protests by Democrats.

The sweeping bill signed Tuesday by the two-term Republican governor further tightens Texas’ strict voting laws.

Under the new law, Texas counties will be prohibited from offering 24-hour voting. Instead, voters can cast their ballot from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The law also bans drive-thru voting.

Additionally, new ID mandates will be put in place for those voting by mail in the state. They will now need to provide either their driver’s license number or the last four digits of the Social Security number twice, once on their absentee ballot application forms and again on the envelope in which they return their ballots, CNN reports.

The law also makes it a felony for a public official to send someone a mail-in ballot application that the person did not request, or to pre-fill any portion of an absentee ballot application.

CNN reports that the law also empowers partisan poll watchers because they cannot be denied “free movement” at polling places, though they can’t watch a voter cast their ballot.

Texas joins more than a dozen states that have passed Republican-backed voting changes since the 2020 election.

The new laws have been driven in part by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Opponents of the changes in Texas have already begun filing lawsuits in federal court.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19, his office said Tuesday.

Abbott, a Republican, is fully vaccinated against the virus, his office said in a statement, adding that he is tested daily and this is his first positive result.

He is currently isolated in the governor's mansion and is receiving Regeneron's monoclonal antibody treatment, the statement said. Abbott is in good health and not currently experiencing any symptoms.

Texas first lady Cecilia Abbott has tested negative and everyone with whom Abbott has been in close contact has been notified, the statement continued. Abbott attended an indoor "Republican Club" event Monday evening, according to photos posted to his Twitter account.

The Texas Republican joins a list of governors who have tested positive for COVID-19 throughout the pandemic, though Abbott's diagnosis is likely to fuel scrutiny from critics given his resistance to implementing mitigation measures as the Delta variant surges nationwide.

Abbott has opposed mask mandates and issued an executive order banning school districts from requiring masks. He had lifted the state's mask mandate in March and allowed businesses to open at 100% capacity despite warnings from public health officials.

"Too many Texans have been sidelined from employment opportunities. Too many small business owners have struggled to pay their bills. This must end. It is now time to open Texas 100%," Abbott said at the time.

Removing mandates, he added, "does not end personal responsibility and caring for your family members, friends and others in your community. People and businesses don't need the state telling them how to operate."

But now the state is reeling from a surge of new COVID-19 cases. On Tuesday, there were 327 ICU beds available in Texas and 11,791 lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals throughout the state, according to state health data.

And Texas had the most pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations in the nation, at 239, according to the latest data released Monday by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday signed an order that will create a state border security task force and announced plans to build more physical barriers at the U.S.-Mexican border.

Abbott made the announcement at a border security summit in Del Rio. CNN reports that the order Abbott signed appropriated $1 billion for border security.

While Abbott expressed the need for Texas to begin building "border barriers," he did not go into specifics about where such barriers would be built.

It's unclear how much authority Abbott has to build such a wall since much of the land bordering Mexico is owned by the federal government or is private property. CNN reports that Abbott will provide more information about the barriers next week.

During remarks on Thursday, Abbott added that he wanted law enforcement to begin arresting migrants who trespass on private property.

"It's not the red carpet that the Federal administration rolled out to them," Abbott said. "They're going to jail in the state of Texas."

Abbott added that any barriers the state constructs will be used to prosecute migrants.

"When anybody tries to modify or attempt to get through, that is a crime for which they can be arrested," Abbott said.

Abbott added that the plan to arrest migrants would require the cooperation of local governments and that he would work with county officials to provide more jail space if needed.

Laredo Mayor Peter Saenz told CNN that he was present at a summit meeting where Abbott described plans for his wall. Saenz said that Abbott repeatedly described the barrier as a "fence" and did not go into details about how it would be built.

Abbott's announcement came days after Vice President Kamala Harris visited Guatemala and Mexico in an effort to work with officials in those countries in the hopes of slowing the rate of undocumented immigrants coming into the country.

"Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border. There are legal methods by which migration can and should occur," Harris said Monday.