Houston Lawyer Reminisces: Learning Spanish with Justice Breyer
The Gibbs & Bruns associate was one of very few – maybe the only – law clerks from Texas who worked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Former Houston Appellate Justice Takes Aim and Fires at Fort Worth Court’s ‘Unethical’ Opinion
“In almost five decades as a lawyer,” former Houston appellate justice Murry Cohen concluded in an amicus brief this week to the Texas Supreme Court, “I’ve read plenty of bad opinions. In almost two decades as an appellate judge, I surely wrote some. None was near this offensive.” Rather than press a position in the case before the Supreme Court, Cohen argued the Fort Worth Court of Appeals justices who decided the case should be admonished for unethical commentary that had nothing to do with the decision.
In Memoriam: Sharon Nelson Freytag (1943-2022)
Sharon Freytag, a founding member of Haynes and Boone's appellate group, died last week at the age of 78. She was a powerful writer, gifted oral advocate, generous mentor and respected leader in the bar. One client said she was "like Jackie O. as a sniper – classy but deadly!"
Divided Fifth Circuit Panel Sends Abortion Law Challenge to SCOTX
The circuit court certified a question to the Texas Supreme Court asking how far state law allows certain state officials, particularly licensing officials, to go in enforcing violations of Senate Bill 8.
Appellate 2021 Year in Review: SCOTX and the Fifth Circuit
Year two of the pandemic brought a gradual return to “normal” operations at the Texas Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit. Virtual arguments – in many cases – transitioned to in-person oral arguments. The Fifth Circuit issued important guidance on certifying FLSA collective actions, rejected the so-called fraudulent misjoinder doctrine and clarified standards for federal jurisdiction in the arbitration context. The Texas Supreme Court issued key contract formation cases, refined the standards for determining when courts and agencies have jurisdiction to decide tort claims in the electric-power context and provided guidance on key procedural questions under the TCPA. The Haynes and Boone appellate team has full details.
SCOTUS is Set to Consider Ted Cruz’s Campaign-Finance Law Challenge
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz returns to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday as a party -- not as a practitioner -- to argue federal campaign-finance limits violate his First Amendment rights. At issue: a 20-year-old federal law that prohibits candidates from raising more than $250,000 after an election to repay a personal loan to their campaigns.
Fifth Circuit Reverses Houston Lawyer’s Tax Evasion Conviction
Although the case "facts were difficult," the Fifth Circuit vacated a tax evasion conviction of Houston lawyer Jack Stephen Pursley on a simple premise: a statute of limitations defense that the three-judge panel said was erroneously shot down by the trial court without analysis.
Updated: Fifth Circuit Judge Gregg Costa Resigns, ‘Returning to My Passion’
Judge Gregg Costa, one of the few moderate to left leaning jurists on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, told The Texas Lawbook Thursday that he is resigning his position on the 17-member appellate court to go back to practice law. Costa, who is only 49, informed his judicial colleagues, law clerks and President Joe Biden this week that he plans to leave the bench in early August. In an interview with The Lawbook, Costa said it “has been a true honor” to serve on the New Orleans-headquartered appeals court and that it was “a difficult decision” to resign. “I look forward to returning to my passion and getting back into the arena of trying cases,” Costa said. The Texas Lawbook has the inside details.