Courts

Arrests Made in HISD Alleged Bribery Scheme

Arrests Made in HISD Alleged Bribery Scheme

Supreme Court Allows Continued Challenge to Texas Abortion Law

Supreme Court Allows Continued Challenge to Texas Abortion Law

I support

Local

Community

Journalism

Support the independent voice of Houston and help keep the future of the Houston Press free.

Sheriff Gonzalez Insists Jail Is Not "Broken," Discusses Sexual Assault on Female Deputy

By Margaret Downing
Dec 8, 2021

Faced with both an inspection from the state that found the Harris County Jail out of compliance with standards and the sexual attack on a female deputy by an inmate this week, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez at a Wednesday morning press conference argued for more staffing, while saying that he doesn't...
Opinion: Rittenhouse Verdict Further Sanctifies “Defensive” Murder

By Jef Rouner
Nov 22, 2021

The jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse case found him not guilty of murder, which is exactly what laws like the Wisconsin castle doctrine are designed to do. It’s also a huge win for people obsessed with fatal defensive gun use. It’s a common misconception that the jury in the Rittenhouse...
Lawyers and Lawsuits Line Up Following Astroworld Tragedy

By Margaret Downing
Nov 8, 2021

Rapper Travis Scout has offered to pay funeral expenses for the eight young people who died at his Astroworld Festival on Friday, which didn't stop the parade of lawsuits that began marching their way to Houston's courts on Monday, the first workday after the tragedy. As was expected, more than...
Technicality That Enabled the Texas Abortion Ban May Trip it Up Before U.S. Supreme Court

By Margaret Downing
Nov 2, 2021

It is more than a little ironic that the technical loophole the Texas conservative officials used to shut down the federally-guaranteed right to abortion in our state may be upended by another technicality. And by conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, no less. Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments...
Federal Judge Blocks Texas Abortion Law — For Now

By Margaret Downing
Oct 7, 2021

”Labeling it an "unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme," a federal judge Wednesday issued an order blocking the new Texas abortion law — at least for now — which means that abortion providers can resume their activities in the state if they feel confident enough to do so. Predictably, the opinion...
Pro-Choice Groups Beg U.S. Supreme Court To Hurry Up And Rule On Texas Abortion Ban

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 24, 2021

Sick of being forced by Texas’ controversial “heartbeat bill” to tell Texans seeking abortions they’ll have to venture hundreds of miles out of state to have their pregnancies terminated, Texas abortion providers and pro-choice groups filed an emergency request Friday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to bypass the normal appeals...
Texas COVID Deaths Surge While Hospitalizations Fall As Delta Wave Continues

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 24, 2021

As public health experts predicted all along, the quick rise in Texas COVID-19 cases from the summer’s Delta surge has finally been followed by a dramatic uptick in deaths from the virus. While there are now thousands fewer Texas hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients than there were a few...
Texas AG Paxton Says Since He's Elected, the Whistleblower Act Doesn't Apply to Him

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 23, 2021

Beleaguered Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s representatives argued in court this week that Paxton shouldn’t be considered a “public employee,” and therefore should be immune to a whistleblower lawsuit filed against him by former colleagues he fired after they accused their old boss of corruption. Meanwhile, Paxton’s been filing a...
Lawsuits Follow After Texas Doctor Breaks Abortion Law, Just Not From Who You'd Expect

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 22, 2021

In the days since San Antonio Dr. Alan Braid’s announcement in the Washington Post that he’d performed an illegal abortion flouting Texas’ controversial “heartbeat bill,” the first two lawsuits filed against him came from pro-choice advocates hoping to block the law, not anti-abortion activists. Meanwhile, Texas’ most ardent abortion foes...
Exonerated Doctor Accused Of Stealing Vaccines Sues Harris County For Over $1 Million

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 21, 2021

Dr. Hasan Gokal was fired by Harris County Public Health for allegedly stealing COVID-19 vaccine doses in December. But after he was found to have committed no crime by a local judge, a county grand jury and the Texas Medical Board, Gokal — a Pakistani immigrant — has now sued Harris County...
Texas Redistricting When Republicans Seem to Hold All the Cards

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 20, 2021

It doesn't matter that 95 percent of the state’s population growth since 2010 (according to the latest census results) has come from Texans of color who traditionally lean toward Democrats when voting. Not when Republicans control the Senate and House. State Democrats and progressive advocacy groups are already convinced the...
DOJ Asks Judge To Block Texas' Abortion Law, While Women Seeking Abortions Are Driven Out of State

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 15, 2021

One sexual assault victim had to travel to Oklahoma to get the abortion now forbidden to her by the new draconian Texas abortion law that went into effect September 1. “I provided an abortion to [a] woman from Texas who had been raped and could not get an abortion in...
Paxton Decides Yes He Can Sue School Districts Mandating Masks. And Does.

By Margaret Downing
Sep 10, 2021

Apparently disturbed by reports that Gov. Abbott wasn't doing anything to school districts that have been defying his order barring any of them from requiring masks, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reversed course and filed several lawsuits Friday with the promise of filing more. Although representatives of Gov. Abbott and...
Are Mask Rules Why HISD Has Tallied Fewer COVID Cases Than Way Smaller FBISD?

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 8, 2021

One, two, three, four — Those aren’t just the first four numbers Houston ISD’s youngest students are taught. Throw them all together in a row and you end up with 1,234, the total cumulative number of COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday afternoon among HISD students and staff members since the...
Abbott Signs Controversial GOP "Election Integrity" Bill Into Law

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 7, 2021

After Labor Day weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott got right back to work by signing into law Senate Bill 1, the Republican-backed slate of election changes that he and his supporters proclaim as a defense against voter fraud and critics say is nothing but a way to make it harder for...
Texas Lawmakers Head Home, But A Third Special Session Looms

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 3, 2021

The Texas Legislature officially shut the door on special session number two Thursday night, as both the state House and Senate voted to adjourn and head home in time for Labor Day weekend. Even though Republicans are celebrating the passage of most of the GOP's laundry list of laws during...
U.S. Supreme Court Refuses To Block Texas’ New Abortion Law From Being Enforced

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 2, 2021

Late Wednesday just before midnight, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief 5-4 decision rejecting an emergency request from abortion advocates for the court to block Texas’ newly enacted “heartbeat bill” abortion law. In one of the first major rulings on an abortion issue since liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg...
Election Bill Hits Abbott's Desk While Fights Over Other GOP Priorities Heat Up

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 1, 2021

With less than a week left in the Texas Legislature’s second straight overtime round of lawmaking this summer, state Republicans have finally delivered Gov. Greg Abbott the “election integrity” bill he and the GOP base have been clamoring for, the one that will supposedly prevent Texas from falling victim to...
Pro-Choice Groups File Last-Ditch Request Asking U.S. Supreme Court To Block TX Heartbeat Bill

By Schaefer Edwards
Aug 30, 2021

Texas pro-choice advocates hoped a legal challenge to Senate Bill 8 — the state’s new “heartbeat” abortion law that would effectively ban all abortions in the state after a fetal heartbeat is detected — could lead a federal district court to block the law from going into effect later this...
Local Criminal Court Backlog Likely To Keep Growing As Pandemic Surges

By Schaefer Edwards
Aug 26, 2021

When asked about how the massive slowdown in the local court system and the resulting backlog of tens of thousands of criminal cases has affected the men and women whom he defends on a daily basis, Joseph Vinas, local defense attorney and president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association,...