In re Tex. Dep’t of Fam. & Protective Health Servs., No. 08-0391 (orig. proceeding)
Response Requested: May 28, 2008
This afternoon, the Court requested that the mothers file a response to the State’s petition for mandamus — by tomorrow at 9:00am. That short timeline is not incredibly unusual in mandamus actions (for which speed is often critical) and it doesn’t necessarily tip the Court’s hand.
What the Court has done is to expand its range of options. Typically, the Court will not grant mandamus relief until after it has at least requested that the party opposed to relief file a response. See Tex. R. App. P. 52.4 (“The court must not grant relief — other than temporary relief — before a response has been filed or requested by the court.”). Having requested a response, the rules now give the Court more latitude to grant the requested mandamus relief for the State in full, rather than just a temporary stay.
So does that signal that the Court is leaning one way or the other? Perhaps not. Typically, the Court will request a response if even a single Justice votes to do so, and it is easy to imagine the Court wanting to see what the mothers have to say about the merits before deciding how to dispose of this case.
Update 5/29: Here’s a link to the response, just filed, on the Court’s website.
4 responses so far ↓
1 kbp // May 29, 2008 at 12:17 am
“…the rules now give the Court more latitude to grant the requested mandamus relief for the State in full, rather than just a temporary stay.”
I see no gain.
What does the stay hurt if they wish to lean towards granting relief?
Walthers can continue her status hearings and it would not be a waste there either, unless they will not “grant the requested mandamus relief”.
2 Hugh McBryde // May 29, 2008 at 8:25 am
Don, what kind of time frame do you, from your experience, normally expect to hear back on such cases?
3 Don Cruse // May 29, 2008 at 9:36 am
Hugh,
In a mandamus case, the Court can move very quickly. I would take today’s 9:00am deadline to mean that someone up there wants to read the response, and possibly discuss it as a group, today.
Why today? It might be that the Court is considering disposing of the case with tomorrow morning’s regular order list (although the Court can of course issue special orders at any time). But the Court’s timing is its own — I wouldn’t bet either way on that.
4 Jeff N. // May 29, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Relief was denied this afternoon.