U.S. Courts

Arlington Is Hellbent on Keeping Armed Libertarians -- and Little Leaguers -- Off Its Streets

Over the summer, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor sided with Open Carry Tarrant County's Kory Watkins and struck down as unconstitutional an Arlington city ordinance banning people from distributing literature -- in his case copies of the Constitution -- to passing motorists. According to a brief p ... More >>

Supreme Court Taps Brakes on HB2, 13 Abortion Clinics Reopen for Now

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Supreme Court cleared the way for reopening 13 abortion-providing health clinics that shuttered following an October 2 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed Texas to begin enforcing the most draconian portions of House Bill 2, the state's 2013 anti- ... More >>

Supreme Court Turns Down Same Sex Marriage Cases, Puts Spotlight on 5th Circuit

Monday morning word came down from on high, or wherever it is the Supreme Court proclamations come from, that the court would not hear any of several same-sex marriage cases it could have this term. In turning down cases from the 4th, 7th and 10th federal circuit courts, the Supreme Court paved the ... More >>

Liquor Store Lobby Tries to Overturn Ruling that Allows Booze Licenses for Non-Texans

Total Wine, the chain of delightfully enormous alcoholic beverage emporia, might never have made it to Texas were it not for a strip club. Twenty-four years ago two guys, one from Florida, one from Tennessee, decided to buy a San Antonio Baby Dolls. They had the cash. They had the expertise. Their ... More >>

Strip Clubs Lose Another Round In Fight Against Texas' "Pole Tax"

Your friendly neighborhood strip club, it's safe to say, is no fan of the $5-per-patron "pole tax" the Texas legislature saw fit to levy in 2007. Its displeasure has been expressed in two ways: by refusing to pay (the tax has so far raised less than a third of the projected $44 million, prompting Co ... More >>

Texas Can't Kill Prisoners Until It Says Where It Got Its Pentobarbital, Federal Judge Says

There have been two significant developments since the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state doesn't have to say where it got the pentobarbital it will use to kill death row inmates Tommy Lynn Sells and Ramiro Hernandez-Llanas. One is that the state of Texas, which had been rather vague ... More >>

Texas Landowner Fighting Oil Giant Is Pleasantly Surprised That Texas Supreme Court Looked Kindly on Her Case

Pretend that a corporation from China wants to build a factory in Texas just for the fun of it and needs to seize a bunch of Texans' private property to build the factory, because it's going to be really big and awesome. Do you think the Texas Supreme Court would stand for that? Probably not. And ... More >>

Texas Supreme Court Will Decide If Defamatory Comments Can Be Forcibly Removed From the Internet

On Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court will thrust itself into a debate as old as the Internet: Is the web a place where ideas and opinions, often vile, sometimes damaging, should be allowed to flow unencumbered? Or should there be some means of identifying defamatory speech and purging it from the In ... More >>

The U.S. Supreme Court Upheld a Key Part of Texas' Abortion Law, but Not without Rancor

When the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and more than a dozen health care providers took Attorney General Greg Abbott to court in September to challenge Texas' new anti-abortion law, they weren't trying to tackle the entire law. Instead, they narrowed in on a few key provisions that were supposed to take ... More >>

Texas Supreme Court Justice: Electing Judges Is a Really Terrible Idea

There's something fundamentally troubling about seeing a judge on the campaign trail. Take Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, for no other reason than that he has waded into the debate. He knows the system and has successfully held onto his place on the state's highest bench. Voters, assuming ... More >>

Holder May Invade Texas? Hey, Man, Tell Us which Bridges To Blow Up.

Yesterday when he told the Urban league he was going after Texas on voting rights, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder quoted a federal court decision last year in which the court said Hispanic plaintiffs in Texas had "provided more evidence of discriminatory intent than we have space, or need, to ad ... More >>

As Execution Nears, Plano Road-Rage Killer Claims Inhumane Treatment, Neglects to Mention He Tried To Tear Phone From Wall

Barring a stay of execution, Douglas Feldman is scheduled to die in nine days. His petition for a state writ of habeas corpus based on ineffective assistance of counsel has gone nowhere. He claims his trial attorney failed to investigate the role his alleged bipolar disorder played in the murders. N ... More >>

Greg Abbott Wants To Make Texas' Interim (And Still Probably Unconstitutional) Redistricting Plan Permanent

As you may recall, Texas' 2011 plan to redraw political boundaries was so brazenly partisan, so undeniably bent on reducing minority influence, and the evidence was so mountainous and convincing that a federal court didn't even bother cataloging it all in its ruling against the state. "The parties h ... More >>

Farmers Branch Gets A Rehearing Before Appeals Court on Immigration Law

A controversial Farmers Branch immigration ordinance will get a second chance in court after a sound rejection back in March, and the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's controversial immigration bill will play a determining role. Farmers Branch has three times passed a "housing" ordinance whi ... More >>

In Farmers Branch Immigration Fight, Competing Readings of Supreme Court's Arizona Ruling

Opposing counsel in a six-year legal battle over a proposed Farmers Branch immigration ordinance are trading letters to the judge, arguing, naturally, that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's immigration law supports their side. Last month, the high court struck down every provision of Ari ... More >>

Welcome Back, Jim Crow

New laws in dozens of states could take out Barack Obama this fall.

Cabbies' Suit Against Dallas and It's Love Field Line-Cutting Rule Tossed Out of Court

Sure, it goes against everything we learned in elementary school -- cut in line and suffer ridicule and a knuckle to the shoulder -- but it turns out the city of Dallas has every right to allow compressed natural gas-powered taxis to queue-jump at Love Field to improve air quality, U.S. District Jud ... More >>

American Cancer Society Gets To Keep Donations to Cattle Baron's Ball From Oil and Gas Fraudsters

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a federal district court's order forcing the American Cancer Society to return some $240,000 donated by Irving-based Giant Operating, an oil and gas company the Security and Exchange Commission says defrauded investors of more than $13 million. The ... More >>

After Judge Keeps County's Suit Against Mortgage Processer in Dallas, a Nudge to Settle

​It's been close to five months since Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins went after Mortgage Electronic Registration System over what Watkins claimed were "tens of millions in uncollected filing fees owed to the citizens of Dallas County." But since then little has been said about the s ... More >>

As Promised, Texas AG, Paul Clement Have Asked Supreme Court to Stay Court's New Maps

​Yesterday we gave you the heads-up: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has brought in former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement to try to throw out what they claim are the federal court's "unlawful redistricting maps." And, right on cue, they've filed their emergency stays with the U.S. Supreme ... More >>

Paul Clement's To-Do List Just Got Longer As He Tries to Toss Texas's Redistricting Maps

​On Wednesday we got our first look at the new-look Texas maps drawn by the court, which is attempting to rectify the U.S. Department of Justice's concerns that the state Legislature is attempting to keep Hispanics from voting for Hispanic candidates, especially in Dallas-Fort Worth. To which Texa ... More >>

Occupy Dallas Can Stay Put, Temporarily and Conditionally, Pending a Hearing on Monday

Photo by Chris Howell​This afternoon, U.S. District Judge David Godbey helped City Hall and Occupy Dallas come to a verbal agreement that protestors can not only keep camping outside City Hall, but can also use City Hall restrooms and keep their current signage -- two issues disputed in the te ... More >>

U.S. Supreme Court Rules Dallas County's Appeal in Fight Over Voting Machines is "Moot"

​This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a very confusing ruling in the case involving Dallas County's voting machines -- a case, you'll recall, that stemmed from Linda Harper-Brown's 19-vote victory over Democrat Bob Romano in 1998. Long story short: The Texas Democratic Party (represent ... More >>

With One Day Left to Save Attacker, Bhuiyan's Case Goes to the Media ... and Federal Court

Behind the counter at the Pleasant Grove convenience store following the September 2001 shooting of Rais Bhuiyan by Mark Stroman​Tomorrow, the steady stream of stories about Rais Bhuiyan's attempt to save Mark Stroman -- the man who shot Bhuiyan in the face and killed two other men in the days fo ... More >>

While We Wait for Election Returns, Look at NY Times's Front-Page Story About Harlan Crow

Photo by Brian HarkinHarlan Crow​I'm killing time at this point ... and this bottle of Old Fitzgerald. And while we wait for the county to update its election totals, I'm reading tomorrow's New York Times, which is full of local-interest stories -- more than our own daily, probably. Like this nice ... More >>

Fantasy Voter Fraud

The Curious Price-Fixing Case of Kay's Kloset Makes a Return to the Supreme Court

Harvard prof Einer Elhauge ​A couple of years back we noted that the price-fix was back in, thanks in large part to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that eventually put a Flower Mound business out of business. Perhaps you recall that case: Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. Kay's Kloset -- ... More >>

Just Because Supreme Court Passes on PISD-Off Parents' Appeal Doesn't Mean This is Over

​At this late date is there really any reason to go back and retell the tale of the Ghost of War on Christmas Past? You remember this, right? Kids at Plano Independent School District elementary schools pass out "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" pencils and Christian-flavored candy canes amongs ... More >>

Judge Won't Dismiss Love Field Guard's Defamation Suit Against Radio Host

Rickey Smiley​Back in May, we directed your attention to the legal woes of Henry Robinson, a former Love Field security guard who claimed in Dallas federal court that The Beat-97.9 host Rickey Smiley cost him his job when he went questioned his heterosexuality. The whole thing stemmed from an inci ... More >>

Yet Again, AG Abbott Defends the Constitutionality of the Texas Pledge

​Remember when David and Shannon Croft sued the state because they didn't want their kids, then enrolled in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district, to recite the Texas Pledge of Allegiance? Yup. Totally forgot about that one. That was two long years ago -- back when the Crofts also sued the ... More >>

Ex-DISD Official Ruben Bohuchot Gets 11 Years In Prison

Ruben Bohuchot Allen Gwinn just texted me with today's news: Ruben Bohuchot, the former Dallas Independent School District associate superintendent for technology indicted last year and convicted in July for screwing the district out of millions, was just sentenced in federal court. Writes Allen, U. ... More >>

Seriously, Never Give an Employee the Company Credit Card. Like, Ever.

Josephine Davis used to work in the Dallas office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of General Counsel -- used to. Now, she may very well end up in prison for the next decade. Lesson learned? Do not use a government-issued credit card to spend $10,000 on a retirement party f ... More >>

We Aren't Marshall: Volkswagen Wants Case Moved to Dallas

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall is a popular venue for patent infringement lawsuits; as The New York Times pointed out in 2006, right after that famous Echostar-TiVo trial wrapped, "more patent lawsuits will be filed here this year than in federal district court ... More >>

FLDS Mothers Respond to State's Response in Texas Supreme Court

Sam Lindsay to FB: Not Yet, Amigos.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas and Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund just sent a press release celebrating U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay's decision today to grant a preliminary injunction that blocks the implementation of that anti-illegal immigrant ordina ... More >>

U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay Votes "No" on Farmers Branch Ordinance

Illustration by Craig LaRotonda Last Tuesday, three days after voters in Farmers Branch voted overwhemingly for the law that bans apartment owners from renting to illegal immigrants, we posted that press release from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Li ... More >>

O Holy Land Foundation

I tore apart Dallas' Only Daily this morning looking for the story about how, on Monday, attorneys representing Holy Land Foundation asked a federal judge here to dismiss charges the U.S. government filed against it after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Didn't see anything; nothing on the We ... More >>

The Backdating Scene

Sore Winners and Losers

The U.S. Supreme Court decision on Texas redistricting is out, and by almost any measure it's a Republican victory. A 5-4 decision isn't exactly crushing, but the effects certainly are: DeLay's 2003 map, known as Plan 1374C, is left almost intact, as is his new tactic of redistricting whenever powe ... More >>

MADI About Alberto

Life After Death

Andre Lewis was eight hours from being executed, until the courts realized they had made a big mistake

Touchy Subject

Federal judge strikes down Dallas' two-rubs-and-you're-out rule for strip clubs

Off the Killing Floor

Dallas-based Supreme Beef wins a major round in its court battle with the USDA

Impossible dreamer

Fearless reformer or legal terrorist? Bobby Wightman-Cervantes makes a run for the Senate. The Texas Bar says he should have his head examined.

Hash Over

Order in the cork

Dissed robes

Federal Judge John H. McBryde gets more than a slap on the wrist from his outraged brethren

Star chamber II

John Henry McBryde's day of reckoning is at hand, but what that means is anybody's guess

Temper, temper

Judge John Henry McBryde ruled his court like a minor despot, angering lawyers and fellow judges. Now they're lined up to depose him, and the Constitution be damned.

Jurist imprudence

The search for a new federal judge reaches the lowest common denominator

A bittersweet deal

Sexual harassment charges against Sky Chefs are settled quietly, and reluctantly