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The blockbuster July 2 ruling that the State Bar of Texas violated the First Amendment rights of some of its members by using mandatory dues to support politically controversial efforts unrelated to the regulation of the legal profession has lawyers wondering whether and when the U.S. Supreme Court might take up the case. But some worry SCOTUS could make it even worse for the bar association. The Texas Lawbook has details.

In the U.S. Supreme Court term that just ended, Texas fared…well, poorly. When you lose all three cases you take before the court, there’s probably no better way to characterize the outcome. But all was not lost, reports Tony Mauro, The Lawbook’s Supreme Court correspondent. In his review of the October 2020 term, he found that Texas still has some clout before the court.

In 2018 the Supreme Court of Texas established a precedent requiring common law cases involving the operation of utilities, even those involving personal injury, to be reviewed by the Public Utilities Commission before reaching the courts. In three opinions filed since Friday, the court has been recalibrating that requirement. The Lawbook’s Allen Pusey reviews those cases and the issues that caused the court to take a new look at its own precedent.