The Texas Lawbook

Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury

Appellate

At SCOTX, A Medical Researcher Fights to Keep UT from Rescinding Her Degree; Call It a Daavid ja Goljat Struggle

For 10 years Suvi Orr has lived with the threat that the University of Texas will revoke her Ph.D. in organic chemistry. For 10 years she’s been fighting back in court against the university’s complaint that she was academically dishonest, based first on a scientific journal published years after graduated related to her dissertation research to create a synthetic compound for cancer treatment. Then on her dissertation research itself. She says she did nothing wrong.

Her lawyers say she’s been denied due process and argue UT cannot void a degree long after a student has graduated, not without full due process in a court hearing that she has never had.

But Tuesday, 14 years after her graduation, 14 years after the start of a pharmaceutical-research career and dozens of peer-reviewed journal articles and patent applications that came with it, the Texas Supreme Court will decide whether UT has the power to do what it wants to do and whether the disciplinary process affords Suvi Orr procedural protection.

Osler McCarthy

Fifth Circuit Upholds Texas Social Media Law Against Facebook, Twitter

A federal appeals court panel, in a 2-1 decision Friday, upheld the Texas law that prohibited large social media companies, such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, from deleting a user’s comments and content even if the media platforms believe the content is harmful or extreme. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit ruled the 2021 law, known as HB 20, "chills no speech whatsoever. To the extent it chills anything, it chills censorship.” The dissent said the U.S. Supreme Court will have the last word.

Mark Curriden

HouseCanary, Amrock $740M Trade Secrets Case Heads Back to Trial Court

In a list of orders issued Friday morning, the Texas Supreme Court denied a request for rehearing that HouseCanary lodged on Aug. 4. The real estate analytics startup was asking the court to undo a Fourth Court of Appeals ruling that gave it an ultimatum: submit to a new trial or move for judgment on the jury’s $201 million award tied to a breach of contract claim.

Michelle Casady

Texas Supreme Court Will Hear ‘Concurrent Causation’ Insurance Dispute

Industry groups argue the burden of proof as to whether property damage is caused by a covered or uncovered cause has erroneously shifted to policyholders when it should be on the insurers. As hurricane season approaches its traditional peak in the state, the Texas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Sept. 21 in the dispute that could have major implications for insurance policyholders.

Michelle Casady

Texas Supreme Court Accepts ERCOT’s Appeal over Immunity

The Supreme Court of Texas agreed late Friday to hear the two cases brought by electric power companies against the Electric Reliability Council of Texas that involved billions of dollars individually and could impact tens of billions of dollars at stake in thousands of lawsuits related to Winter Storm Uri. The two cases, which are unrelated to each other, are likely to be argued jointly because the same questions are at the heart of both matters: Is ERCOT a division of state government and is it immune from civil lawsuits?

Mark Curriden

Fifth Circuit Judge Gregg Costa’s Exit Interview: ‘A Monumental Loss’ for the Courts

As Gregg Costa neared graduation at Dartmouth College in 1994, he faced a choice: Follow his dream and go directly to law school or take a couple gap years and get a job. He chose the latter. The decision changed his life forever. Last week, Costa stepped down as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to return to private practice, stunning nearly everyone in the legal community and left lawyers and judges asking why a 50-year-old just one step away from the U.S. Supreme Court would give up a lifetime appointment.

In an exclusive interview with The Texas Lawbook, Costa said there were a handful of reasons. At 50, he believed he needed a change. The makeup of the Fifth Circuit left the more moderate Costa in the minority on issue after issue. But Costa’s decision to leave the Fifth Circuit – like many of his biggest career choices – can be traced back to Sunflower, Mississippi, an impoverished town of 1,100 and his two years of teaching third and fourth graders.

Photo: Sharon Ferranti

Mark Curriden

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