Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, individuals accused of bilking the government out of millions via Covid-19 testing and dental scams are sentenced to prison, Austin-based CrowdStrike gears up to fight litigation related to a global software outage and the Fifth Circuit seeks the Texas Supreme Court’s input in a lawsuit brought by a former Southern Methodist University law professor who was denied tenure.
The Fifth Circuit majority zeroed in on the “double-layered delegation” of the authority to set the tax rate for the universal service fund, which is used to subsidize phone and internet services for rural and low-income areas, as well as schools, hospitals and libraries, across the country. With the holding, the conservative Fifth Circuit did what the Sixth, Eleventh and D.C. circuits had declined to do in cases brought by the conservative nonprofit Consumers’ Research against the FCC raising this same issue.
The Texas Supreme Court reviewed 96 cases from the state's 14 intermediate appellate courts this past term. Overall, the distribution of outcomes varied, with some courts experiencing a higher rate of affirmations while others saw more reversals or mixed decisions. The Lawbook examined the performance of the appeals courts by the state's highest judicial authority.
Earlier this summer, the Texas Supreme Court decided two highly publicized, high-stakes cases arising out of Winter Storm Uri. The upshot of Luminant and RWE appear three-fold for the Texas electricity industry.
James Dondero had appealed to the Fifth Circuit in September 2022, arguing the bankruptcy judge wrongly found him in contempt of a temporary restraining order and awarded compensatory damages to Highland. Judge Leslie H. Southwick wrote that the “minor factual issues” Dondero raised on appeal weren’t enough to undo the sanction. “Undergirding our analysis of the sanctions award here is a recognition of the goal of such awards everywhere: ‘to do rough justice,’” he wrote.
In a decision Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices ruled that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit failed to “conduct a proper analysis of the First Amendment challenges” to a Texas law that regulates content posted on large internet platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube. The Supreme Court vacated and remanded NetChoice v. Paxton — a case in which the Fifth Circuit upheld a Texas law prohibiting websites and social media outlets from editing or deleting posts deemed to be false or harmful.
A 2003 tort reform law limits Honda’s liability because its ceiling-mounted detachable seatbelt system met federal safety regulations. The case presented novel questions about the interplay of state law and federal regulations. The large jury verdict was considered by some lawyers to be a so-called “nuclear verdict” ripe for reversal.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in 10 cases during the 2023-24 term that came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. It reversed the Fifth Circuit seven times.
In this edition of Litigation Roundup, we detail two new changes in rules governing attorneys who practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a jury in Harris County issues a $17 million verdict in a seven-year-old lawsuit and Whataburger goes to court to defend its trademark.
Legal efforts by some of the largest energy companies in Texas to force the Texas Public Utility Commission to reprice the record-high electricity rates it charged during Winter Storm Uri three years ago were flatly rejected Friday by a unanimous Texas Supreme Court. The state’s highest court ruled that the PUC did not exceed its legal authority in February 2021 when it ignored market competition to set electric rates at $9,000 per megawatt-hour because the Texas grid faced an emergency crisis and possible collapse “that would have plunged the state into darkness for weeks, maybe months.”
The unanimous 30-page opinion reverses the decision of the Austin court of appeals in 2023 that the PUC overstepped its legal authority by ignoring integrated market competitive procedures and instead manually set electric rates during the four days of Winter Storm Uri.
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