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Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

Appellate

Fifth Circuit Nominee Irma Ramirez ‘Devoted to Following the Law’

Irma Jean Carillo was 15 and a sophomore in high school in rural West Texas when she started thinking about becoming a lawyer.

“I refused to take home economics. I took speech and debate instead,” she told the Dallas Bar Association in 2022. “The idea of extemporaneously speaking and debating and getting to argue with the teacher was so much fun. Doing the research and making sure that we prepared the arguments. It was so much fun.”

Four decades later, Irma Carillo Ramirez is a U.S. magistrate in Dallas and likely to soon be the first Hispanic woman to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

SCOTX Adopts Broad Rule on Intent to Arbitrate

The Texas Supreme Court decides a closely watched business case by finding that adoption of American Arbitration Association rules in oil and gas leases shows “clear and unmistakable” evidence of intent to arbitrate. A dissenting justice says the ruling will strip courts of power to decide whether a particular dispute falls outside the scope of an agreement to arbitrate.

NDTX Magistrate Irma Ramirez Nominated to Fifth Circuit

A former federal prosecutor in Dallas, Judge Ramirez has served as a federal magistrate in the Northern District of Texas since 2002. In 2016, she was nominated to a NDTX judgeship with the support of both Texas senators, but never received a vote by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate.

SCOTX Chief Justice Gives State of Judiciary Address

Chief Justice Nathan Hecht spoke for almost 40 minutes Wednesday, supporting a variety of proposals that he said would increase court efficiencies, the caliber of judges and access to justice. “If the justice system were a business, and its customers had any choice, it would be in bankruptcy,” Hecht said.

SCOTX Greenlights Degree Revocation by Public Universities

The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the consolidated cases in September where two former students argued their alma maters had denied due process and acted outside the scope of their authority in rescinding their doctorate degrees years after graduation. The majority of the Texas Supreme Court held that despite scant precedent, the law allows universities to take that action regardless of when the alleged academic misconduct underpinning the decision is discovered.

Lawmakers Advance 15th Court of Appeals Bill

In the face of varied and robust opposition to the proposal to create a new, statewide appellate court with exclusive jurisdiction over disputes involving the state or a state agency, lawmakers last week voted to send the bill to the full senate for a vote. Texas for Lawsuit Reform has championed the bill as an opportunity to establish a court with specialized expertise to hear matters of statewide importance.

PUC Appeals Court Decision Striking Down $9K Electric Rates During Winter Storm Uri

The Public Utility Commission of Texas claims that a decision issued 11 days ago by a Texas appeals court declaring that the emergency pricing orders issued by the agency in 2021 during Winter Storm Uri were unlawful needs to be immediately reversed because it “has thrown Texas’s electricity and associated markets into confusion.”

Lawyers for the PUC filed an official petition for review with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday arguing that the Third Court of Appeals in Austin “had no jurisdiction to validate or invalidate already-expired orders.”

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