Effective September 1, 2023, Texas governmental entities have 30 days after the attorney general releases an opinion determining information is public and must be disclosed to release the information or notify the requestor...more
On June 18, 2023, HB 2071—the Texas legislature’s solution to perceived abuses of property tax incentives related to Public Facility Corporations (PFCs)—took effect. The law amends Local Government Code Chapter 303, which...more
The Texas Legislature approved HB 2127, the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, on May 23, 2023, and the bill is soon expected to be signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott. Upon the Governor’s signature, HB 2127 would go into...more
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of Texas held that Texas Central Railroad & Infrastructure Inc. and its related entities have eminent domain authority to acquire property for a proposed high-speed rail between Dallas and...more
During the recent 2021 session, the Legislature passed The Firearm Carry Act of 2021 (House Bill 1927), which allows qualified Texans and other citizens to carry open or concealed handguns without a permit. The new state law...more
Key points:
•The Fifth Circuit rejects river authority’s claims of immunity on an antitrust claim brought by two private water utility companies.
•In a break from other circuits, Fifth Circuit will hear interlocutory...more
On June 30, 2021, Governor Abbott approved Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to lift the open meeting law suspensions that had been temporarily suspended in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result,...more
On June 30, 2021, Texas’s Third District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision to protect the City of Houston’s interest in an unbuilt water reservoir by striking down a state law, declaring it unconstitutionally...more
After last month’s historic winter storm in Texas knocked out power to millions and left dozens dead, four Texas counties—Harris, Travis, Fort Bend and Hidalgo—are asking the Texas Supreme Court to determine that the...more
On July 30, 2020, the Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston issued an opinion in Hyde v. Harrison County, and held that governmental immunity will not protect Texas counties from administrative fines for violating certain...more
The Supreme Court of Texas recently announced that local governments who have agreed to arbitration clauses may be forced into arbitration. However, the Court also announced that the judiciary “retains the duty to decide...more
What are a government’s risks when they deem a business not “essential” and require it to cease operations? Are such Emergency Orders effectively a “taking” of the business? And if so, will the governmental authority be...more
Key Points-
The Texas Supreme Court has been asked to consider what constitutes an “activated” foreign trade zone (FTZ) and thus ad valorem tax exemption.
The case at hand involves a FTZ subzone that was implied and...more
Key Points On June 11, 2019, the Houston First Court of Appeals issued a 34-page opinion holding that the University of Houston’s alleged infringement of a private citizen’s copyrighted photograph was not a taking under the...more
The new law clarifies legislative intent that the previous anti-boycott Israel law does not pertain to small contracts and individuals, but is it enough to address the Court’s constitutional concerns?
On May 7, 2019,...more
On Friday, March 8, a unanimous Texas Supreme Court affirmed the Fifth Court of Appeals and upheld the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System’s decision to cut the future interest rate on accounts established under a deferred...more
On Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals struck down Section 551.143(a) of the Open Meetings Act, making it a crime for members of a governmental body to “knowingly conspire to circumvent this chapter by meeting in...more