Texas Supreme Court Answers Certified Questions in a Way that Package Liquor Stores Worry May Open Floodgates to Big Retailers

The court answered certified questions from the Fifth Circuit asking it to interpret state liquor laws banning public corporations from owning package-store permits in Texas. But, in doing so, justices determine an exempt corporation, exempted by a grandfather clause that allows a public corporation to own liquor stores, should not forfeit its exemption by selling interests to ease debt in a Chapter 11 reorganization.

June 17, 2022 Osler McCarthy

Texas Supreme Court Holds Against Texas A.G., Clarifies Rules for Soliciting Mail-in Ballots

The Texas Supreme Court has held a challenge to an "election integrity" law as too broad in its sweep to limit how Texas voting officials "solicit" mail-in ballots.

June 10, 2022 Osler McCarthy

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.

June 8, 2022 Mark Curriden

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.

June 6, 2022 Osler McCarthy

A Doctor’s Struggle to Clear His Reputation Got More Complicated When a Judge Found His Sanction Baseless

First the Texas Medical Board temporarily slapped an Austin neurologist with a sanction for unprofessional patient contact. But only when a judge cleared him of the allegations did his fight really begin to rid a national database of the sanction that even the medical board dismissed. But the Texas Supreme Court ruled enough was enough.

June 6, 2022 Osler McCarthy

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.

June 1, 2022 Tony Mauro

Texas Supreme Court Report

A SCOTX dispatch, including a case highlight and other causes to watch.

May 31, 2022 Osler McCarthy

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.”

May 26, 2022 Osler McCarthy