U.S. Supreme Court

The Supreme Court Will Decide if North Texas Can Take Oklahoma's Water

With North Texas' population exploding and near-perennial drought seeming more and more like a certainty rather than a fluke, state water planners have been scrambling to secure new supplies, going further and further afield in search of waterways that haven't been tapped out. Several years ago, th ... More >>

As Supreme Court Debates Gay Marriage, Texas Politicians Explain How it Violates God's Law

The attention of the country, or at least that segment of it that's politically aware enough to pay attention, is focused squarely on the U.S. Supreme Court,which this week is debating a pair of potentially momentous cases. Hollingsworth v. Perry, which was argued today, could do away with Californi ... More >>

It Seems Mediocre Grades, Not Ethnicity, Kept Abigail Fisher Out of UT Austin

The future of affirmative action in American universities could be decided within weeks, in a Supreme Court case with Texas roots. But a new report from the investigative journalists at ProPublica suggests that the story of Abigail Noel Fisher's fight against the University of Texas ultimately has v ... More >>

How the Bastards Win: A Greedy Lying Bastards Review

Minority Leaders Rallied at City Hall Today to Explain Why Texas Needs the Voting Rights Act

The U.S. Supreme Court began hearing arguments today challenging the constitutionality of and need for Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, which requires Texas and other southern states with a history of suppressing the minority vote to get pre-clearance from the Feds before implementing changes ... More >>

A State Rep. Wants Ten Commandments Posted in Public Schools, Because Republicans Say So

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court answered the question of whether the U.S. Constitution allows the Ten Commandments to be displayed on government property with a resounding It depends. In a pair of decisions handed down on the same day, the court ruled both that a Ten Commandments display at the Texa ... More >>

Texas Conservatives Observe 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade With Ridiculous Press Releases

Today is the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark court case that originated in Texas with Norma McCorvey and ultimately led to the Supreme Court sweeping away a number of state and federal abortion restrictions. Because of Roe, terminating a pregnancy in the first trimester is between a wo ... More >>

Ask a Mexican: Discrimination, Lard and Beans, Straight From the Heart of Texas

Wal-Mart Wins Texas Lawsuit Over Gender Discrimination

Nearly a year and a half since the U.S. Supreme Court tossed a class action lawsuit filed by some 1.5 million female Wal-Mart employees who say they hit a corporate glass ceiling, the plaintiffs hit a brick wall in Texas. Because the court ruled the women of Wal-Mart could not sue as a class, a num ... More >>

Eliminate Race in Deciding UT Admissions? Fine, Then Let's Really Level the Field.

Let's say Abigail Noel Fisher wins her appeal now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Let's say a more conservative court backtracks on earlier opinions supporting the use of race as an admissions criterion at the University of Texas and tells the university to stop considering race altogether. ... More >>

Federal Court Unanimously Strikes Down Texas' Voter ID Law, Calls it Discriminatory

For the second time in three days, a federal court has called a Texas voting measure as discriminatory. Earlier today, a three-judge panel in D.C. issued an opinion striking down the state's voter ID law, passed by the legislature last year. The law would require voters to present a valid photo ID ... More >>

Appeals Court Says Texas' Redistricting Maps Are Discriminatory; Texas Vows to Appeal

When the Texas legislature passed new redistricting maps in 2011, it sure seemed that the lines had been drawn to dilute the power of Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters in favor of Republicans. State leaders swore that wasn't the case, but, rather than taking them to an unfriendly Justice Department ... More >>

System of Plea Bargains Over Trials Has Some Dicey Consequences

In the course of reporting the recent Observer feature on wrongful convictions based on wrongdoing by prosecutors and police, an interesting tangential point surfaced multiple times. It was the reminder by several lawyers that wrongful convictions are all cases that went to trial, but that there are ... More >>

A Sampling of Texas' Overblown Reactions to Obamacare Ruling

At the end of the day yesterday, the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation sent a dispatch from its president, Brook Rawlings, reacting to the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act. "Make no mistake," Rawlings wrote. "This outcome is a net negative for every Texan -- and ... More >>

Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law

Update at 9:40 a.m.: Check out the full decision below. Original post: We were planning to try to localize the Supreme Court's decision this morning on the Affordable Care Act, do some sort of informed, level-headed analysis like the DMN's Michael Lindenberger prepared last night. But that would re ... More >>

What the Supreme Court's Ruling On Arizona's Immigration Law Means for Farmers Branch

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down much of Arizona's illegal immigration law Monday morning, leaving its most controversial, show-me-your-papers provision standing, and that only provisionally. Experts say the decision provides a road map to federal courts evaluating immigration laws enacted in plac ... More >>

Farmers Branch Has Spent Five Years and Millions of Dollars Trying to Keep Out Mexicans. Is It Time for a Truce?

Welcome Back, Jim Crow

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

When Arizona's Immigration Law is Upheld, the Floodgates of Hate Will Swing Open

The U.S. Supreme Court and President Obama leave the undocumented and their allies no choice but to escalate civil disobedience.

America's War on Brown People Has Gone Too Far

A hostile Supreme Court. A feckless Obama administration. America's war on Mexicans has gone too far.

Freedom Under Fire: A Village Voice Media Special Report

Texas Judicial Conduct Commission Slams the Door on Sunset Review, Cites Confidentiality

Who's judging the guys who judge the judges? Well, nobody, really. That's because the legislative agency charged with evaluating other state agencies' functionality and raison d'être, the Sunset Advisory Commission, got shut out of their meetings and denied access to confidential documents. Now, ... More >>

Supreme Court Tosses District Judges' Redistricting Maps, Says Texas Needs a Do-Over

​Back in November U.S. District Judges Orlando Garcia and Xavier Rodriguez down in San Antonio drew up new congressional and state House and Senate maps, since they so hated the ones submitted by the Texas Legislature. The judges claimed the state willfully ignored the state's growing Hispanic pop ... More >>

State Maps Stayed, Texas AG Abbott Now Wants Supremes to Delay Candidate Filing Period

Carol Kent's hoping to run for House Disrict 107, if there is a House Distict 107.​As we were leaving the office Friday, word came down that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement) got what they wanted from the U.S. Supreme Court: a ruling that, for now, ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

The State Never Could Execute Ronald "Buffalo" Chambers. But He's Dead Now.

A then-21-year-old Ronald "Buffalo" Chambers was sentenced to be executed in 1976.​I cannot count the number of stories Observer editor Mark Donald and I have written about Ronald "Buffalo" Chambers, who, on April 10, 1975, kidnapped 22-year-old Texas Tech student Mike McMahan and 20-year-old Dei ... More >>

The Cowgirl Honors Lone Star Royalty

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 >>

U.S. Supreme Court Drowns City of Dallas's Hopes for Taking Water From Neches River

Schutze, unlike the city, is not up the Neches River without a paddle.​The U.S. Supreme Court today has ruled against the city of Dallas in its lawsuit over the proposed Neches River Reservoir -- an 11th hour reprieve for the state's last wild river. It's a two-word ruling - "certiorari denied" - ... More >>

Supremes Decline to Give Waxahachie High Student's T-Shirt Its Day in Court

This isn't the John Edwards tee in question, which is too bad.​Maybe you remember: Back in September '07, Waxahachie High School student Pete Palmer was called into the principal's office and that, Look, you're all-black look is way too goth for the school's dress code. At which point his dad, Pau ... More >>

Naughty Aughties

Sonia Sotomayor May Not Be Mexican, But She’s Close Enough for Government Work

Supreme Court Can't Be Bothered With Discrimination Suit Against AA

Price-Fixing: Legal and Lovin' It!

The Man Called Buffalo, "The Dean of Death Row," Gets Yet Another Reprieve

Waiting for Death

Sharon Keller is Texas' Judge Dread

When Sharon Keller turned off the clock on a Death Row inmate's last-gasp appeal, she became the most vilified judge in Texas

Supreme Court Will Let Dallas Man's 401(k) Lawsuit Move Forward

Matt Pulle's Crystal Ball

Supreme Suspense

The Truth About Harriet

Plus: Déja Vu, Second Coming, Soldier of Misfortune

Our Pal

We'll never tell, despite the Supreme Court

Cooking With Class

Soon, Dallas students can learn the restaurant biz in school

Life After Death

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

Diversopoly

Got what it takes for law school? Play the game and find out.

Hash Over

Order in the cork

Tough enough?

Paula Jones wonders whether she's up for an appeal, but the Supreme Court may decide for her