Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
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.
A new Fifth Circuit ruling involves an Austin legal recruiter and a competitor who are sparring in litigation that has stretched from Texas to Asia and involves accusations of defamation and theft of trade secrets.
Oral arguments over the Texas-led challenge to the Affordable Care Act appeared to be an uphill battle for Texas Solicitor General Kyle Hawkins Tuesday. Questions about the Texas arguments, even from the conservative end of the bench, appeared to be "bludgeoning him," in the words of one observer. Texas Lawbook Supreme Court reporter Tony Mauro explains.
Three days after the election and with nearly all the votes counted, the four judicial races in Houston’s First and Fourteenth Court of Appeals are in a photo finish that seems to reflect that two Republican incumbent justices and two Democratic challengers are on the verge of winning.
Like President Donald Trump and Former Vice President Joe Biden, the fate of all eight candidates is still pending as they enter the weekend. One of the candidates has a lead of 0.6%. “All I can say is we are ahead as of now,” Amparo Monique Guerra, a candidate for the First Court told The Texas Lawbook. Natalie Posgate has all the details.The four races for seats on Houston’s First and Fourteenth courts of appeals are incredibly close. Three incumbent Republican justices are leading their opponents by 1%, while one Democratic candidate is ahead of the GOP incumbent justice by 1%. By contrast, three Democratic district court judges are leading the incumbent Republican justices on the Dallas Court of Appeals by significant margins. Natalie Posgate has the details.
At a time when political analysts say Texas is trending blue, the state’s voters overwhelmingly decided to keep the Texas Supreme Court totally Republican. With 90% of the counties reporting, all four incumbent state Supreme Court justices cruised to re-election Tuesday. In fact, all four justices won their races by larger vote margins than did their colleagues in 2018. The Texas Lawbook has the details.
The Texas Lawbook has five journalists tonight - election night - covering the judicial appellate and trial court races and will provide details as the election results are provided.
Straight-ticket voting is no more in Texas, but what are the implications? This article explains the history of the voting method and both parties' attitudes toward it.
In a live-streamed, fully-masked and socially-distanced ceremony Friday, Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle, a former partner at Baker Botts in Houston, was sworn by Gov. Greg Abbott as the newest justice on the Supreme Court of Texas. Huddle is only the 10th woman to serve as a justice on the court.
Michael Minns was on the last day of a virtual bench trial before a Kansas judge when he found out he prevailed in the Texas Supreme Court against global law firm K&L Gates. Now the Kansas proceeding will prove to be invaluable as the Texas case returns to a Hays County trial court. This article explains the connections.
Less than four months after its controversial “tired trucker” ruling absolved an employer whose employee died after being required to work excessive hours, the Texas Supreme Court is weighing a $43.5 million jury verdict tossed on appeal because of the court's broadened limits on a worker's right to sue.
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