Citing increased violence in and around courthouses, Texas House committee...
The recent shootings in Kaufman County, Texas of the county’s prosecutor, his wife and an assistant prosecutor have lead to increased security for court staff and the entire Kaufman County Courthouse....
View ArticleTexas House passes several bills that could mean arrest of judges that...
I mentioned in January the press to prosecute state and local officials, including and specifically judges, who uphold federal firearms laws. On Monday May 6, two such bills were approved by the Texas...
View ArticleMovement on changing judicial selection in Texas House and Senate
Not to pick on Texas two days in a row, but the state’s House and Senate are both moving on judicial selection at a rapid clip. On May 3 the Senate State Affairs Committee approved SB 103, a law that...
View ArticleLouisiana and Texas legislature contend with issue of electronic signatures...
With the advent of new efiling systems in courts, statutes that mandate or at least heavily imply the use of “wet ink” signatures are becoming in some instances a restraint. Louisiana and Texas have...
View ArticleTexas House considers impeachment proceedings against judge
Although it is in a Second Special Session dominated by talk about abortion, Texas’ House may be shifting its focus towards judicial impeachment. HR 106B, filed on July 16, seeks to suspend from office...
View ArticleBans on court use of sharia/international law: NC legislature approves ban,...
North Carolina’s legislature now joins those in Alabama (SB 4, constitutional amendment on ballot in 2014), Missouri (SB 267, vetoed by governor), Oklahoma (HB 1060, signed into law) and Washington...
View ArticleStarting next week some Texas judges may no longer be paid on monthly basis
For many, if not most, of us paychecks are disbursed every two weeks. Not so for many Texas judges who have for decades been paid on a monthly basis. Starting September 1, however, that may change...
View ArticleSpecial Edition: 2013 & 2014 ballot items affecting the courts – 8 states...
Since my last update 3 months ago on the 2014 ballot there’s been one piece of movement: New Yorkers will vote in 2013 (as opposed to 2014) on whether or not to raise the mandatory retirement age for...
View ArticleSpecial November 2013 election coverage starts today: items on NY & TX ballots
With seven weeks until the November 2013 elections, Gavel to Gavel‘s coverage of the two items on the ballot will start through the e-newsletter, the blog and YouTube channel. As a reminder, the two...
View ArticleElection 2013: Are NY Proposal 6′s loss or Texas Prop 9′s win harbingers for...
The final results are in from last night’s two electoral items related to the courts and both were fairly dramatic in their win/loss ratios. Texas Proposition 9 was approved 85% to 15% Prior to last...
View ArticleTexas Legislative Year in Review: state court efiling system, studies on...
Constitutional Amendment SJR 42 Authorizes the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to add to its list of allowable disciplinary actions after a formal proceeding a public sanction. Provides sanction...
View ArticleSeveral state legislatures have empowered chief justices, supreme courts to...
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks states began the process of dealing with the potential for courts to be shut down for days at a time. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita extended that potential...
View ArticleTexas law restricting court’s ability to hold laws unconstitutional struck...
A Texas law enacted in 2011 that prohibits a court from finding a law unconstitutional unless the state’s Attorney General is given notice, and requiring the court give that notice, has itself been...
View ArticleEfforts to change state constitutions to remove/alter Judicial Council or...
This seventh and final installment looks at efforts to change state constitutional grants of rulemaking authority to courts of last resort, typically called the “supreme court”, or judicial councils....
View ArticleChanging civil jurisdiction thresholds – Part 5
This fifth and final item in a series of posts looks at legislative efforts to change the civil jurisdiction thresholds in state limited and general jurisdiction courts in the last decade. For a...
View ArticleTexas: Bill would mandate state supreme court & court of appeals render...
Earlier this year Kansas’ legislature set deadlines for that state’s supreme court to render decisions, in 2015 it appears Texas may attempt to do something similar. Under SB 64 of 2015 as prefiled the...
View ArticleTexas: bill would overturn recent Court of Criminal Appeals decision, require...
I mentioned in March that the Texas legislature had in 2011 enacted a law that would have required the state’s courts notify the AG when a law was struck down as unconstitutional and given 45 days...
View ArticleTexas bill would require the posting of judges’ personal financial disclosure...
Over the last several years there’s been a debate regarding the posting of financial information, including home addresses, of judges online. Alabama for example moved to require such an disclosure (HB...
View ArticleTexas: Legislator wants constitutional mandate that state’s top courts video...
With hearings in the U.S. House this month regarding Congress’ willingness, and legal ability, to compel cameras to be placed in the U.S. Supreme Court, one Texas lawmaker wants to put the same kind of...
View ArticleTexas bill, almost identical to SC one: Judges that “recognize, grant, or...
I mentioned last month an effort in South Carolina that would provide that state judges recognizing or upholding same sex marriage license were to be automatically removed from the case and denied pay....
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