SCOTX Makes Moot Case Moot-er

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday took the unusual step of vacating a lower appeals court’s opinion in a dispute – now moot – over the state education agency’s failure to implement legislative revisions to standardized tests given to public school students in grades 3 through 8.

The Supreme Court agreed with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that it needed to do more than vacate the judgment of the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals because of the adverse precedent it set on the issue of when a state agency may be held accountable for not implementing legislation in the absence of an appropriation.