Courts

The short-term rental industry has become the latest “internet-based service firm” to arouse the ire of citizens and local governments nationwide. Here in North Texas, Arlington has recently joined the growing number of cities to restrict or even ban the practice of renting or operating short-term rentals as offered by…

Two years ago, Texas got in line with many of its conservative sibling states and passed a law addressing one of its most pressing concerns — preventing any companies that participate in the boycott, divest and sanction movement from doing business with the state. This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott…

Texas House Democrats banded together with some of the chamber’s most conservative members Thursday to pass legislation that would stop Texas juries from sentencing killers with severe mental illnesses to death. Dallas Rep. Toni Rose’s bill would require juries who find that a defendant convicted of capital murder was suffering…

It’s hard to find anyone who likes Texas’ Driver Responsibility Program. Civil rights groups hate it. The Texas Tea Party hates it. The Observer’s readers, judging from the number of emails we’ve received about it, hate it. With a unanimous vote Thursday, the Texas House of Representatives showed that it…

Texas’ law banning government agencies from doing business with people or other businesses that support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel is on hold Thursday night after a federal judge issued an injunction against it, ruling that it is likely unconstitutional. The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement calls for…

To hear Dallas Police Association President Mike Mata tell it, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot’s new reforms — Creuzot’s office will no longer prosecute certain misdemeanor theft cases or first-time marijuana offenses — stereotype poor people, rather than helping them out. “I take great offense to saying that poor…

U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn sentenced former Dallas City Council member Dwaine Caraway to a little more than four and a half years in federal prison Friday afternoon. In August, Caraway admitted to taking almost $450,000 in bribes and kickbacks related to Dallas County School’s ill-fated stop-arm camera program. Lynn…

The hits just keep on coming for acting Texas Secretary of State David Whitley. He remains unconfirmed by the Texas Senate and under federal court scrutiny for his attempted purge of almost 100,000 voters from the state’s registration lists. Now, thanks to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee, he’s…

In August 2018, Texas A&M University-Commerce gave George Hale a choice: 1) Sign a loyalty oath swearing he would never join or support a boycott of Israel, 2) Lose his contract to continue working on an award-winning podcast about unsolved crimes in Texas for the public radio station associated with…

Airbnb is officially on Texas’ list. Not for being a menace to apartment dwellers everywhere or avoiding hotel occupancy taxes, or anything like that. Instead, Airbnb, a home-sharing app that offers an alternative to traditional hotels, is in trouble with the state because it refuses to list Israeli-owned rentals in…

The only thing propping up the veneer of transparency created by the Texas Open Meetings Act is the honor system, thanks to a ruling earlier this week from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court. Until Wednesday morning, Texas law forbid public officials from knowingly discussing public…

What started as a legal battle between Gearbox Software (Borderlands, Aliens: Colonial Marines) CEO Randy Pitchford and his company’s former legal counsel, Wade Callender, has boiled over into the public sphere thanks to a number of shocking details in a recent lawsuit.

A now-closed Dallas nightclub and former Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent bear joint responsibility for the death of Brent’s best friend and former teammate Jerry Brown in a 2012 car accident, a Dallas County jury decided. During a nearly weeklong trial, attorneys for Brown’s family asked the jury to…

The Spunky Squaw, a Stephenville-based online boutique that was ensnared in a controversy in October for their use of what many believe was a racist slur in their business name, recently had their website taken down, causing a collective sigh of relief from American Indian activists who were campaigning against the…

A national civil rights nonprofit sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and four Texas Department of Public Safety officials Wednesday in an effort to kill a controversial Texas program that the group says has caused the suspension of 1.4 million Texans’ driver’s licenses. Texas’ Driver Responsibility Program imposes surcharges on those…

The Dallas County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved a $120,000 payment to settle a lawsuit brought against the former head of Dallas County Health and Human Services. The vote came 11 months after the county fired longtime health department chief Zach Thompson following sexual harassment allegations by a subordinate employee…

It turns out the nearly decade-long fight over Texas’ legislative districts didn’t actually end with the Supreme Court’s ruling against the plaintiffs in June. Late Friday afternoon, the coalition of voting rights groups that have fought the state for fairer legislative districts since the last round of redistricting in 2010…

Monday, a Dallas County grand jury heard evidence in the case against Amber Guyger, the former Dallas Police Department officer who shot and killed Botham Jean. What the grand jury heard or who they heard it from isn’t known — grand jury proceedings are secret — but attorneys for Jean’s…

The Republican majority that Texas’ 5th Court of Appeals held for almost 20 years came to end after last week’s elections in what is probably the real local upset of the midterms. Overnight, the court of 13 Republican judges became majority Democrat with eight winning seats, including a new Democratic…