SCOTUS Denies Review in the Dallas Death Penalty Case of Kristopher Love
The U.S. Supreme Court’s liberal justices on Monday criticized their colleagues and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for the handling of the long-running death-penalty case.
Houston Appeals Court Reverses Multimillion-Dollar Arbitration Award
Houston’s 14th Court of Appeals has reversed a $7 million arbitration award in an attorney-fees dispute because the arbitrator failed to disclose he had been an expert witness in litigation involving the party who selected a list of arbitrators. The court found the nondisclosure constituted “evident partiality” under Texas law.
SCOTX, Fifth Circuit Chiefs to Marry
Court officials say it is the first time in U.S. history when a chief judge of a federal appeals court and a state supreme court chief justice have married.
SCOTUS Calls a Halt to ‘War’ Against Texas Bar Mandatory Dues
The Supreme Court also denied certiorari Monday in two mandatory bar cases – one from Michigan and the other from Oklahoma. The actions may slow the momentum of nationwide “bar wars,” but other challenges could be likely.
Texas Supreme Court Gives Plaintiffs Another Shot at a Chick-fil-A at the San Antonio Airport
Plaintiffs, objecting to the San Antonio City Council’s rejection of the restaurant chain’s location inside a San Antonio International Airport concourse, sued under a state law the Texas Legislature specially passed missed a point – the law was not retroactive. But the council’s action came well before the Legislature’s. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the trial court to allow repleading to establish jurisdictional facts – and maybe give the plaintiffs another bite at a chicken sandwich.
Southwest Airlines Brings Its Baggage to the Supreme Court
At issue is a decades-long dispute over the meaning of a clause in the FAA. Lawyers for the Dallas-based airline go before the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to assert that its baggage loaders and supervisors can be required to undergo arbitration when they file employment complaints.
Oil Exporter’s Oil-Spill Fund Payment an ‘Unconstitutional Export Tax,’ Court Holds. But the Decision Goes Without Precedent
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has decided that payments by oil exporters into an oil-spill remediation fund are unconstitutional export taxes. But the holding held not so much because one judge concurred only in the judgment and one dissented, evidently robbing the decision of precedential value.
Status of Bar Wars: The Reincarnation?
The fact that a petition seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of a challenge to the mandatory Texas bar-association dues has been lumped together with similar disputes from Michigan and Oklahoma suggests the high court may have decided to tackle, once and for all, the extent to which state associations can compel lawyers to pay dues that may finance activities with which they disagree.