Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Alfred Dewayne Brown’s lawyers said a decision released Friday by the Supreme Court of Texas will allow future innocent Texans who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes to have “a much easier time getting compensated from the state.”
“We got justice for one man but in the process we’ve set a precedent that’s going to help bring justice to a lot of women and men in the future who might otherwise not be able to get it,” said Susman Godfrey partner Neal Manne, one of Brown’s lawyers.
For the second time in less than a week, Texas has lost an “original jurisdiction” case before the U.S. Supreme Court, giving new gravitas to the nickname Lone Star State. Tony Mauro has the details.
The ruling in favor of Baylor Miraca Genetics Laboratories pours out a 2018 verdict for former company executive Brandon Perthius who had claimed commissions on sales made after he left for a competitor. The Lawbook’s Bruce Tomaso has the details.
Thomas Reavley preached his first sermon against racial discrimination in East Texas in 1935. He was a Naval officer in the South Pacific during World War II. He was a prosecutor in Dallas. Governor John Connally appointed him to a Travis County district court and later to the Texas Supreme Court. President Jimmy Carter appointed Reavley to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1979.
Judge Reavley, who was believed to be the oldest serving federal appellate judge in the U.S., died Tuesday in Houston. He was 99.
Doubling down on a ruling earlier this year that intent governs whether employee lawsuits are excepted from the restrictions of the Texas Workman’s Compensation Act, a unanimous SCOTX tossed a $43.5 million jury verdict for a worker who lost a leg in what the court itself described as “an avoidable, unjustifiable, and grossly negligent accident.” Janet Elliott explains.
The Fourteenth Court’s two sitting Republican justices — Tracy Christopher and Ken Wise — have won their races, while two Democratic challengers — Veronica Rivas-Molloy and Amparo Monique Guerra — have defeated their incumbent opponents in the First Court of Appeals.
In HouseCanary v. Title Source, a scrap over source code pits a 2013 law designed to protect trade secrets against a longstanding rule of Texas Civil Procedure that presumes that court records are open to the public. At stake is not only a jury verdict of more than $700 million, but a longstanding vision of public trust.
A new video featuring Fifth Circuit Judge Jennifer Elrod and U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge singing about the coronavirus’ impact on the federal courts in the Southern District of Texas is spreading across Facebook. The message: Don’t be sad or mad. Your fave judges will be back in their courtrooms soon.
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