Supreme Court of Texas Blog

Possible federal suit over FLDS

The Star-Telegram has an article titled “Polygamist sect to sue government officials over raid.” The article suggests that some members of the group may seek damages to pay for counseling for children or for property damage.

The article has some mention of strategy and sovereign immunity, but (at least through the [...]

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I’ve learned there is a new appellate blog in Texas, this one with a special focus a little to the east. The blog is Tyler Appeals written by Jeff Rambin, and its welcome page says that one “goal is to provide a summary of every case decided by the 12th Court of Appeals. [...]

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It’s easy to find newspaper stories recapping the Court’s relatively brief opinions in the case. Here are some articles with a somewhat different analytical take:

Volokh Conspiracy: Professor Eugene Volokh tries to put his finger on the disagreement between the majority and dissenting Justices and finds it in the notion of what makes a [...]

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In re Tex. Dep’t of Fam. & Protective Health Servs., No. 08-0391 (orig. proceeding)

Filed: May 23, 2008

This afternoon, the Texas Department of Family & Protective Health Services sought mandamus relief from the Texas Supreme Court to overturn yesterday’s decision of the Austin Court. The State also sought an emergency stay.

The Austin paper has this [...]

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The “Airline Biz” blog of the Dallas Morning News has a long interview with Herb Keller of Southwest Airlines on the occasion of his retirement. Yesterday’s installment included his account of the litigation battles that Southwest Airlines had to win before it could take its first flight.1

He describes it as a “four-year war” lasting [...]

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There is an interesting guest post on the Texas Appellate Law Blog about a case out of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

In Vasilas v. State, decided May 7th, the CCA held that a person could be criminally prosecuted for a false statement made in a civil filing regardless of how that same conduct would [...]

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The Houston Chronicle has an online article titled “Report says most Texas Supreme Court opinions anonymous”.

The “report” of the headline is from Texas Watch. The newspaper quotes the group:

“All too often, the Texas Supreme Court uses per curiam opinions as a shield to hide behind when they render decisions that are controversial, [...]

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Ted Cruz chooses his new law-firm home; another firm launches a “national appellate practice”

Morgan Lewis & Bockius (former holders of one of the early outstanding email-address domains) announced today that they just hired Ted Cruz to lead their new national appellate practice as a partner out of their Houston office.

This is a good thing [...]

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The press reacted very quickly to the Perry Homes decision, getting stories onto their online editions:

“Texas Supreme Court rules against Mansfield couple in battle with homebuilder” by Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News. This one has been “above the fold” on the online version of the website. “Houston homebuilder Bob Perry wins big in [...]

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Takeover battles often have more pieces in motion than fit into any one courtroom. In the ongoing Clear Channel merger, the banks (who are trying to escape or at least renegotiate their funding obligations) have filed a petition for writ of mandamus with the Texas Supreme Court seeking dismissal of a pending tort suit [...]

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