The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

Appellate

Baker Botts Secures Partial Win for Union Pacific in Environmental Lawsuit

The plaintiffs, according to court records, seek more than $100 million in damages for wrongful death, physical impairment, disfigurement, mental anguish and loss of use and enjoyment of real property. Houston’s 14th Court of Appeals dismissed some claims against Union Pacific but sent the case back to Harris County District Court to determine the fate of the others.

Texas Supreme Court to Review Houston Astros-Sale Case

Next up in the lineup challenging the 2011 sale of the Houston Astros: the Texas Supreme Court. After the court granted review of former Astros owner Drayton McLane’s petition contesting lower court holdings that the new owner might have paid too much, a principal issue on deck is whether the sale can be reversed.

For V&E’s Tom Leatherbury, the Mantra is ‘Texas – So Many First Amendment Violations, So Little Time.’

In First Amendment decisions like the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent injunction stopping enforcement of a Texas law governing social media platforms, and other free-speech challenges for years, Vinson & Elkins senior partner Tom Leatherbury has been front and center. Leatherbury, widely regarded as a leading media and appellate lawyer in the state and who founded a media law clinic at SMU, tells The Texas Lawbook that First Amendment challenges never seem to end.

Fifth Circuit Panel Rebukes Houston District Court Judge Yet Again

For the third time in five years, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has rebuked a federal district court judge in Houston for denying a plaintiff discovery before summary judgment. “This is the third time we have been asked to consider whether a particular district court can deny discovery rights protected by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure because, in the district court’s view, that discovery is unnecessary,” the three-judge panel declared in a per curiam opinion. “We have twice held no. Today we so hold a third time.”

Texas Justices Issue Mixed Decision on Child-Abuse Investigations Over Family Decisions on Transgender Minors

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas AG Ken Paxton have no legal authority to order state child-abuse investigators to act against parents and doctors who participate in medical and mental-health actions involving transgendered minors, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. The state’s highest court, in a fractured opinion mostly confined to procedure, upheld a lower court injunction stopping the state’s child welfare agency investigation into the specific case being challenged, but adding that lower courts exceeded their authority by making the injunction statewide.

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