Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Answers to the governor’s questionnaire shed some light on the judicial philosophies of some 30 who have applied for the coming business trial and appellate courts. Generally, they like conservatives like Scalia and Thomas and shun SCOTUS decisions on Obamacare and the Chevron deference.
Editor’s note: This article was written in advance of the governor’s announcements Wednesday.
Litigators dominate the latest applications for the new business court judgeships, public records show. In the coming weeks, Gov. Greg Abbott will exercise his new power to select jurists to handle the new court’s docket of complex corporate governance and transactional disputes. A drafter of the legislation to create the specialized court system makes the case for ‘sit down’ lawyers to throw their names in the hat.
Justices determined that two adjacent chicken farms were a nuisance but said less-drastic remedies to abate the odors are warranted. Agricultural interests are closely following the appeal, which attracted prominent lawyers for Sanderson Farms and its growers.
The Texas Supreme Court rejected the state transportation department’s claim that it thought the large oaks and elms were in its right of way when it directed a contractor to have them cut down. Such a ruling would “eviscerate our constitutional bulwark against uncompensated takings,” the court said.
Justices decided the first of three cases that test cities’ immunity when officers were involved in vehicle crashes while responding to calls for service. The court dismissed a wrongful-death case filed by the family of a Houston bicyclist killed by a cop car speeding at night without emergency lights and sirens. The court found that the officer acted in good faith while responding to a suicide in progress call.
For more than three decades, reporter and lawyer Mary Flood walked the halls of state and federal courthouses in Houston, chronicling the victories and defeats of the city’s colorful legal lions. She used her quick wit and persistence to win sources, from those who cleaned the building to the powerful who sat high on the bench. Her investigative reporting forced the Hermann Hospital board to provide more charitable care and offered leads to federal agents investigating Enron’s implosion. Flood went from college dropout to Harvard-educated lawyer. When she reinvented herself as a media consultant for law firms, she became a rainmaker.
The court responded to a call by former justice Scott Brister to clarify standards for a “tag-along” transfer to the existing Salesforce MDL in Harris County. Such direction has been lacking in previous reviews of MDL transfers over the past 20 years, Brister says.
A unique site with exotic wildlife and an event center, the Texas Disposal Systems landfill near Austin is also a dump, its lawyer argues. The landfill is fighting to uphold a 2019 appraisal review board decision that lowered its valuation from $21.7 million to $2.8 million as part of an equal and uniform tax protest. Travis Central Appraisal District says a district court should review the landfill’s fair market value because of a lack of comparable properties.
A career prosecutor argued that he was 17 and not a lawyer when Morton was convicted of murder in 1987 in Williamson County. The Supreme Court, however, said it was uncontested that Tommy Lamar Coleman “assisted the prosecution” in 2011 when he was an assistant DA who mocked Morton’s post-conviction efforts to have a bloody bandana tested for DNA.
Twenty lawyers, including several former Texas appellate and trial court judges, have applied for appointment to the newly created business courts and intermediate appellate court. They include prominent figures such as former Texas Supreme Court Justice Scott Brister, appellate specialist David Gunn and Houston MDL Judge Sylvia Matthews. Five candidates from the Texas AG’s office also are seeking positions. Gov. Abbott will appoint the judges and justices, who begin hearing cases in September. The Texas Lawbook obtained the applications through a public information request.
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