Lending pro bono assistance, Baker Botts is teeing up a constitutional challenge to the Texas comptroller’s decision that sales tax must be collected on feminine-hygiene products when the agency concludes Band-Aids and gauze – and even libido boosters for men – should not. This policy, argues the energy partner who is tackling the challenge, Meghan Dawson McElvy, “favors the male sex drive and organs over the management of female menstruation.”
Houston Appeals Court Reverses Multimillion-Dollar Arbitration Award
Houston’s 14th Court of Appeals has reversed a $7 million arbitration award in an attorney-fees dispute because the arbitrator failed to disclose he had been an expert witness in litigation involving the party who selected a list of arbitrators. The court found the nondisclosure constituted “evident partiality” under Texas law.
Texas Supreme Court Gives Plaintiffs Another Shot at a Chick-fil-A at the San Antonio Airport
Plaintiffs, objecting to the San Antonio City Council’s rejection of the restaurant chain’s location inside a San Antonio International Airport concourse, sued under a state law the Texas Legislature specially passed missed a point – the law was not retroactive. But the council’s action came well before the Legislature’s. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the trial court to allow repleading to establish jurisdictional facts – and maybe give the plaintiffs another bite at a chicken sandwich.
Oil Exporter’s Oil-Spill Fund Payment an ‘Unconstitutional Export Tax,’ Court Holds. But the Decision Goes Without Precedent
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has decided that payments by oil exporters into an oil-spill remediation fund are unconstitutional export taxes. But the holding held not so much because one judge concurred only in the judgment and one dissented, evidently robbing the decision of precedential value.
A Special Deal Too Good to Be True. And Was.
From the Texas Supreme Court: A client supposedly in Europe wants help with a debt collection and contacts a Houston lawyer by email, promising a $10,000 retainer. A bad scenario got worse. More than $380,000 wired by the lawyer to Japan: Gone. Plus: Two more cases from the SCOTX docket: SandRidge Energy Inc. v. Barfield and Baby Dolls Topless Saloons Inc. v. Gilbert Sotero.
Chris Pace Joins Winston & Strawn’s Dallas Litigation Practice from Jones Day in Miami
Pace, who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, is a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Former Houston Appellate Justice Takes Aim and Fires at Fort Worth Court’s ‘Unethical’ Opinion
“In almost five decades as a lawyer,” former Houston appellate justice Murry Cohen concluded in an amicus brief this week to the Texas Supreme Court, “I’ve read plenty of bad opinions. In almost two decades as an appellate judge, I surely wrote some. None was near this offensive.” Rather than press a position in the case before the Supreme Court, Cohen argued the Fort Worth Court of Appeals justices who decided the case should be admonished for unethical commentary that had nothing to do with the decision.
Divided Fifth Circuit Panel Sends Abortion Law Challenge to SCOTX
The circuit court certified a question to the Texas Supreme Court asking how far state law allows certain state officials, particularly licensing officials, to go in enforcing violations of Senate Bill 8.
Former Dallas Appellate Justice Joins Thompson Coburn
With the move, Douglas Lang will co-chair the St. Louis-based firm’s national appellate practice.
Texas Lawbook New Managing Editor Osler McCarthy: ‘Let Me Hear From You’
Osler McCarthy has long been top of mind here at The Texas Lawbook. His sage summaries of cases while working alongside the Texas Supreme Court helped cull newsworthy wheat from legal chaff. And now on this, his first day as Managing Editor of The Texas Lawbook, Osler explains what this has done to his plans for retirement, and why he needs your help.