Texas was once again at the forefront of some of the biggest legal stories of the year. The following are the state’s top stories of 2022 as determined by the staff of Androvett Legal Media & Marketing.
1. Texas’ Abortion Trigger Law Triggers Range of Responses
In August, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling not only overturned the landmark precedent of Roe v. Wade, but also “triggered” a controversial Texas law that made performing an abortion in the state a felony punishable by up to life in prison.
The law criminalizes performing an abortion from the moment of fertilization unless the pregnant woman is facing “a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy.” In fear of possible prosecution, many providers across Texas had already stopped performing the procedure earlier in the year.
Texas joins at least 12 other states with an abortion ban, with similar legislation pending in more than a dozen others. Conversely, voters have since added protections for abortion rights in California, Vermont, Michigan, Kentucky and Kansas. Judges in other states have temporarily blocked bans from taking effect in order to hear challenges against them.
Meanwhile, some district attorneys in Texas – including those in heavily populated Harris, Bexar, Travis and Dallas counties – have indicated a reluctance to prosecute reported violations, citing a lack of resources and the impracticalities of enforcement. In response, a group of conservative Texas lawmakers introduced legislation that would allow prosecutors from other parts of the state to enforce the law, even if outside their jurisdiction.
Other already-filed bills would allow a woman to get an abortion if her pregnancy is the result of sexual assault or incest, or when it’s necessary to save her life or physical or protect her mental well-being. Abortions would also be allowed under this bill if there’s a lethal diagnosis to the fetus or one that would require extraordinary medical intervention to keep it alive outside the womb.
2. Uvalde: ‘Systemic Failures and Egregious Poor Decision Making’
“I don’t know what’s going on, but … get under the table and act like you’re asleep,” a teacher at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School told his third- and fourth-grade students as the sound of gunfire was heard from the next classroom on May 24. Moments later, an 18-year-old burst through the door, opening fire with his just-purchased AR-15 style rifle.
As horrifying as initial news reports of another school shooting were, the nightmare only deepened as a clearer picture of the events came into focus.
Within minutes of the first shot, law enforcement officers – in the end, more than 370 in all – descended on the school. But rather than rush the classroom as taught in active-shooter training, the officers hung back, lining the school hallways. Over the course of the standoff, the intermittent sound of gunfire was heard. Children made frantic 911 calls from inside the classrooms. Parents outside the school begged for police to charge the school. Finally, after one hour and 14 minutes, Border Patrol Tactical Unit officers entered the room, killing the gunman.
With 19 children and two educators killed, it was the nation’s second-deadliest school shooting in history, behind only the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, where 20 students and six educators lost their lives.
How could such a botched response have happened? Some pointed the finger at the school for lax security, others placed the blame at the feet of the district’s police chief who abdicated leadership to seemingly no one. According to a Texas House committee investigation, the fault was in “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” by a long list of officials.
Many parents turned their anger on state lawmakers who had failed to pass any significant reforms in the four years since a shooter at Santa Fe High School took 10 lives, wounding 13 others. While Uvalde renewed debate about gun restrictions, other safety rules were proposed instead, including default locking of exterior doors, panic alarms, and arming teachers. The state’s role and response to the massacre became a flashpoint issue in the gubernatorial race, but ultimately Gov. Greg Abbott was reelected to a third term.
3. Texas Jurors Return Blockbuster Verdicts
It was a year of staggering verdicts in Texas (and elsewhere,) particularly so-called exemplary damages meant to punish civil defendants for their actions.
Headlining this trend was a Dallas jury’s $7 billion verdict in September against Charter Communications for the family of an Irving woman who was robbed and murdered by a Spectrum internet installer. The company not only ignored red flags surrounding the installer, but also forged paperwork that would have relegated the litigation to arbitration, according to testimony.
Just a month earlier, an Austin jury returned a nearly $50 million defamation verdict against InfoWars and its conspiracy-slinging host Alex Jones. The verdict included $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a victim of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, an event Jones has routinely claimed was faked.
Between February and April, there were also six large employment discrimination verdicts, including a $70 million verdict for 10 employees of a Dallas IT company who were subjected to a hostile work environment.
“What large, nuclear verdicts, like these do to the process is create fear amongst defendants across all walks of business that they cannot place their trust or faith in what 12 ladies and gentlemen on a jury might do. It causes more cases to result in resolution or settlement,” said attorney Bill Chamblee of Dallas-based Chamblee Ryan.
“I think we’ll see in 2023 that fears about trying lawsuits will calm down somewhat. We’ll get back to a more logical, reasonable routine of looking at lawsuits and making determinations, not based on fear but based on fact, and trusting these cases to jurors to decide.”
4. Jan. 6 Capitol Attacks Trials Begin
Supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the 2020 election results. Those actions resulted in at least 964 people being arrested and charged, and trials in those cases began this year.
The first trial was held in March in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. Guy Reffitt of Wylie and a member of the militia group the Texas Three Percenters, was found guilty of five felonies. It was an important victory for the Justice Department, which had only just begun trying those who participated in the deadly and destructive attack. Of those who have gone to trial, 41 have been found guilty, 15 on felony charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding Capitol police officers.
Of the estimated 900 arrested across the country, Texans account for a substantial number of defendants from all 50 states, with approximately 80 cases to-date. Investigations remain ongoing.
One of the most anticipated trials – that of Granbury’s Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right extremist group Oath Keepers – got underway in November. Although he reportedly remained outside like a “battlefield general” watching his troops, never entering the Capitol during the riot, Rhodes was found guilty of seditious conspiracy and a number of additional crimes related to the breach, such as obstruction of an official proceeding and tampering with documents and proceedings.
Rhodes has indicated a willingness to testify at the trial of four more Oath Keepers that began earlier this month. At least one defense attorney was said to be considering the offer.
5. To Bus or Not to Bus: The Battle Over the Border
In April, the simmering controversy over the country’s border policies turned into a boil when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that hundreds of migrants had been bused from the Texas border to Washington, D.C.
Abbott’s policy was in response to the Biden administration’s initial attempt at lifting Title 42, a pandemic-era border restriction. Established under President Trump, the policy allows the U.S. government to expel migrants more quickly and without having to consider them for asylum.
Abbott called the busing strategy a way to provide relief to Texas border communities “overwhelmed by the historic influx of migrants caused by President Biden’s reckless open border policies.”
But critics, including Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, called the move a cruel political stunt “using immigrant families – including women and children – as pawns to shamelessly push Abbott’s warped political agenda.”
As of Dec. 12, Texas has bused over 14,300 migrants to several northern U.S. cities, including more than:
- 8,600 migrants to Washington, D.C.
- 4,100 migrants to New York City
- 1,300 migrants to Chicago
- 300 migrants to Philadelphia
While a federal court in Louisiana later blocked the Biden Administration from lifting Title 42, a federal judge ordered its end by Dec. 21, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.”
The fight, however, is not over. Several Republican-led states asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene to keep Title 42 in place, arguing they would be harmed by an increase in migration. Chief Justice John Roberts has since issued an order keeping the measure in place as the Court considers whether to maintain the program. The Biden Administration responded by saying the states’ claim has nothing to do with public health, but instead wish to use Title 42 as a “make-shift immigration-control measure.” The Court is likely to act in the coming days.
6. The Texas Culture Wars Continue
The legal and political battle over gender and sexuality in Texas continued in 2022 with – most recently – the revelation Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office asked for information about Texans who changed their gender on their Texas driver licenses.
The Texas Department of Public Safety reports it was unable to fulfill the request, but news of the request still served as a chilling reminder of the legal jeopardy in which many transgendered Texans find themselves.
Earlier in the year, Paxton attempted to intervene in a case involving Dallas physician Dr. Ximena Lopez and her treatment of transgender patients. A court injunction in that case allowed Dr. Lopez to continue seeing new and existing patients, providing them and their families with the care they need.
All of this happened in a year when both the attorney general and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sought to investigate families with transgender children for child abuse if those families were getting their children treatment and medications for gender dysphoria, or discomfort brought on by a mismatch between one’s biological sex and gender identity.
7. Cancer Victims Cry Foul as ‘Texas Two-Step’ Dances into National Scrutiny
Legal observers across the nation are anxiously awaiting a Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the legitimacy of a corporate bankruptcy strategy that’s come to be known as the “Texas Two-Step.”
The case before the Philadelphia-based court involves a move by Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s largest and most profitable corporations, to briefly incorporate its consumer products division in Texas before splitting into two separate companies.
Under the Texas statute, one entity has retained all operations and revenue while the other, known as LTL Management LLC, is saddled with all liabilities, including, most notably, pending litigation and hundreds of millions of dollars in jury verdicts awarded to cancer victims. LTL filed for federal bankruptcy protection in late 2021 in North Carolina, before the case was moved to J&J’s home state of New Jersey. The court has issued a blanket stay on all litigation and has generally sided with Johnson & Johnson in its rulings, leading to the appeal that was heard earlier this fall.
Critics say the “Two-Step” is being used unfairly to push more than 35,000 lawsuits claiming that longtime use of J&J’s talc-based body powders led to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma out of civil courts and into the bankruptcy system. Proponents of the strategy – which even its legislative authors concede was not envisioned for this purpose – say that the bankruptcy courts provide a more efficient and fair means to resolve mass torts.
A ruling from the Third Circuit is expected at any time and will likely provide further guidance on whether the “Two-Step” may be used by other companies as a way to avoid large-scale civil litigation.
8. Former Texas Police Officer Sentenced in Fatal Shooting of Atatiana Jefferson
On Dec. 15, for the first time in history, a Tarrant County jury found a former Fort Worth police officer guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of a citizen. A prison sentence of 11 years, 10 months and 12 days was announced four days later, more than three years after Atatiana Jefferson was killed on Oct. 12, 2019, by FWPD’s Aaron Dean while he was responding to an “open structure” welfare check call in a south Fort Worth neighborhood.
Dean testified during trial he thought Jefferson’s house was being burglarized and shot in self-defense after seeing the silhouette of a figure holding a gun. Jefferson, who had been playing video games with her young nephew, apparently grabbed her gun upon hearing noises outside her window. Body-cam evidence showed neither Dean nor a second officer identified themselves as police upon arrival and Dean fired the single, fatal shot a split-second after shouting out a warning to “show me your hands.”
Dean was charged with murder, but jurors convicted him on the lesser charge of manslaughter following a week-long trial. It is expected that Dean’s attorney will appeal the conviction, but with a sentence exceeding 10 years, he is not eligible for bond during any appeal process.
Criminal defense attorney Russell Wilson, in an interview with Fox4News, said that he believes the Jefferson family and Fort Worth community should view the conviction and sentence as fair and just.
“This jury deliberated for a substantial period of time, and the verdict was pretty thoughtful,” he said. “The message out of all of this is that law enforcement, even in the line of duty, does not have a blank check. Society will enforce criminal rules against police officers discharging their duty. That is a significant change not only in Tarrant County, but also nationwide.”
9. In Headline-Grabbing Trade, Griner Rebounds from Russian Detention
In February, on her way to her ninth year competing for UMMC Ekaterinburg in the Russian basketball league, WNBA superstar Brittney Griner had to travel through Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport. But the seemingly routine act of passing through security quickly spiraled into a nightmare for the Houston native, her family and fans.
Grainy footage from the Russian Federal Customs Service shows local officials searching through her bag, coming up with a handful of vape cartridges, later reported to contain hashish oil. Although she had a physician’s prescription for medical cannabis to help alleviate severe chronic pain resulting from numerous sports injuries, the Olympic champion was arrested.
Facing a possible sentence of up to 10 years of hard labor, when Griner finally went on trial in July, she offered a guilty plea, saying she brought the cartridges into the country by accident. Hopes that a conciliatory plea would serve to mitigate the severity of her sentence were dashed when she was found guilty on Aug. 2 and sentenced to 9 years in prison and fined 1 million rubles (about $16,700.)
After she was relocated in November to a notoriously violent women’s penal colony in Mordovia, about 210 miles east of Moscow, U.S. officials remained dedicated to resolving what was termed her “wrongful detention.”
Early on the morning of Dec. 8, news broke that Griner would be released under a “prisoner swap” agreement and flown to a Texas medical facility for treatment and to be reunited with her wife. Although hopes had been for any such agreement to also include Paul Whelan, Russian officials have so far refused to budge on the release of the U.S. Marine veteran they have termed a “spy.”
10. Full Throttle Waco Patent Court Forced to Pump the Brakes
At the start of 2022, Waco was fast becoming the patent litigation hub of the country, thanks in large part to U.S. District Judge Alan Albright.
A veteran patent litigator, Judge Albright wasted no time turning his court into the go-to destination for U.S. patent litigation following his 2018 appointment by then-President Donald Trump. And by 2021, nearly a quarter of new patent cases were being filed in the Western District of Texas, and his courtroom regularly featured tech behemoths duking it out.
Despite his short tenure on the bench, Judge Albright is viewed by both plaintiffs and defendants as being fair, knowledgeable, and efficient.
“Judge Albright, in my opinion, is exactly what you want in a judge,” said Karl Rupp, a Waco-based partner with the law firm Sorey & Hoover LLP. “He calls the balls and strikes exactly as he sees them regardless of which side that’s for.”
That admiration is not universally shared however, with some Congressional feathers being ruffled by the concentration of patent lawsuits in Judge Albright’s court. As a result, his red-hot caseload changed in July when Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia issued an “equitable distribution” order. The ruling forced the random assignment of patent cases to judges throughout the Western District, while allowing for the possible reassignment of cases “by mutual consent” of judges. However, with Judge Alia Moses taking over as Chief U.S. District Judge in November, more change could be forthcoming.
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