It looks to be a typical conveyor-belt week at the Court.1 With no conference scheduled, the Court’s only event this week is its regular Friday order list.

This Friday, I expect to be away from the internet, so I suggest checking out Todd Smith’s Texas Appellate Law Blog for any updates.

Articles from the Past Week

Order [...]

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Restlessness over a long-pending oil and gas case

“Dispute has industry, mineral owners nervous”.

The Fort Worth Business Press takes a closer look at a long-pending oil and gas case out of Corpus Christi, which is apparently causing uncertainty among the companies involved in developing the Barnett Shale.

Here’s the first sentence: “One name above others strikes [...]

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Two legislative races have sparked what sound like twin cases that might wind their way up to the Texas Supreme Court. Both turn on the same provision of Texas law — the prohibition against holding two public offices. And both lawsuits ask how early in a campaign that prohibition attaches to a person [...]

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Osler McCarthy has just sent out an email advisory announcing Kennon Peterson as the Court’s new rules attorney. She has been working at Baker Botts since clerking for the Chief Justice in 2004-2005.

The current rules attorney, Jody Hughes, is returning to the Office of the Solicitor General.

I’ll update this post with a link to [...]

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Spanking

“Justice of peace has immunity over spankings” from today’s Houston Chronicle.

State District Judge Abel Limas issued the ruling after a one-hour hearing involving Los Fresnos families complaining of spankings in Justice of the Peace Gustavo “Gus” Garza’s courtroom. Limas said they cannot recover damages in a civil suit filed against Garza. [...]

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The sad news that former Justice James A. Baker has passed away has just been reported by Quorum Report. (Here is coverage from the Houston Chronicle.)

My thoughts are with his family and members of his Court family.

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Fort Worth Court Grants Newspapers Access To Sealed Court Records in Settled Sex-Abuse Case

Today’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram has a story titled “Sex abuse records on priest who served in Arlington and Bedford should be released, court says”.

Nguyen v. Dallas Morning News out of the Fort Worth Court. ( docket sheet ).

This is not the usual [...]

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This week’s “We’re taking it to the Supreme Court!” case

The Times Record News of Wichita Falls has an article today titled “Sent back: Court reverses employee pay increase plan”.

It reports that the Fort Worth Court of Appeals has reversed a declaratory judgment “that would have forced the county to adopt a six-year/six-step pay increase plan [...]

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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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