Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
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.
Scores of wrongful death, personal injury and property damage cases are pending against ERCOT since last February’s crippling winter storm. None of those cases can move forward until the appellate courts decide whether ERCOT is a state governmental agency protected from litigation under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Two Texas courts of appeals — the Fourth Court in San Antonio and the Fifth Court in Dallas — recently heard oral arguments from lawyers on both sides of the issue. The Texas Lawbook has the details.
Sworn in Nov. 10 as the next justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, Evan Young hit the ground running. He is immersed in reading briefs to sit for an oral argument soon after Thanksgiving. “It wasn't so long ago that I was the one who had to prepare for oral argument on the other side of the bench,” Young said in an exclusive Texas Lawbook interview.
Texas Lawbook correspondent Tony Mauro interviewed Young about leaving a $1 million-plus paying partnership at Baker Botts to become a justice and his plans to run for re-election.
For the past two decades, Osler McCarthy has been a trusted voice of appellate law in Texas – informing lawyers, judges, members of the news media and the public on the cases being decided by the nine justices who sit on the Supreme Court of Texas. This week, Osler – educated as a lawyer and trained as a journalist – joins The Texas Lawbook fulltime as managing editor and head of the publication’s appellate law coverage.
The movie Diehard 2 is officially a cited source in a Fifth Circuit opinion. Circuit Judge James Ho pointed to the character airport security Captain Lorenzo in emphasizing that all police officers know that reporters asking questions of law enforcement is protected by the First Amendment. The appeals court cite came in a victory for Laredo crime reporter Priscilla “La Gordiloca” Villarreal, who sued local police for arresting her in 2017 for simply doing her job.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that he is appointing Baker Botts partner Evan Young to the Texas Supreme Court. An appellate partner who lives in Austin, Young, who is 45 and grew up in San Antonio, replaces former Justice Eva Guzman, who resigned in June to be a candidate for Texas attorney general.
The Supreme Court is hearing five oral arguments this week, and all five of them have a Texas connection. Two of them were scheduled to be argued 10 days after the court agreed to take up the cases – an extraordinarily fast track for the advocates. Lawyers involved in the SCOTUS cases are from Haynes and Boone, Beck Redden and Rogers, Morris & Grover. Texas Lawbook correspondent Tony Mauro has the rundown of Texas lawyers playing a role in each case.
The Supreme Court of Texas on Wednesday issued an order that redefines aspects of the State Bar of Texas so that the organization's leaders cannot be viewed as speaking for all bar members or suggesting that all members support the bar’s views or statements. Tony Mauro has the details.
The U.S. Supreme Court started its 2021 term Monday and its business docket so far is “ridiculously light.” But Texas will make its mark this term in a different area of the law: the First Amendment. Four pending cases arising from Texas will test issues of free speech and free exercise of religion. So here is a quick rundown of the Texas cases as well as the business cases of possible interest.
The State Bar of Texas on Thursday made public a broad range of rule changes to comply with a federal appeals court ruling in July that the bar association violated the First Amendment by imposing membership and dues on lawyers who object to certain bar activities.
From his house in the M Streets neighborhood of East Dallas, Carl Cecere has built an appellate practice that has become enviable from virtually any point of view. He can go where he wants, write what he cares about and sometimes tell the courts what he thinks they should do. His influential Twitter presence has attracted top-tier SCOTUS practitioners seeking his common sense advice and elegant briefing handiwork, and here he tells The Lawbook's Tony Mauro what he's expecting from the nation's highest court this term and its already ambitious caseload.
Energy companies that compensate employees by the day must still pay those people overtime because they are not exempt salaried workers under the strict wording of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Fifth Circuit has ruled. The appeals court decision is a huge blow to energy companies who have relied for decades on the idea that they could escape paying OT to workers paid an extra high daily wage. Dissenting judges say the decision overturns decades of standard practices within the energy sector and will have a devastating impact on the oil and gas industry. The Texas Lawbook has the full details.
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