A challenge to the Governor’s extension of the early-voting period, brought as an original proceeding in the supreme court, failed for procedural reasons: “Relators delayed in challenging the Governor’s July 27 proclamation for more than ten weeks after it was issued. They have not sought relief first in the lower courts that would have allowed a careful, thorough consideration of their arguments regarding the Act’s scope and constitutionality. Those arguments affect not only the impending election process but also implicate the Governor’s authority under the Act for the many other actions he has taken over the past six months. Relators’ delay precludes the consideration their claims require.” In re Hotze, No. 20-0739 (Oct. 7, 2020).

Last week I spoke (virtually) at the State Bar’s Advanced Civil Appellate Course. My topic was post-verdict motions in state in federal court; here is a copy of my PowerPoint.

While you are looking forward towards the Texas Supreme Court’s term starting up, you can look backwards at the work of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas in two episodes of my “Coale Mind” podcast:

– The Liberty to Sell a Slave reviews an 1843 opinion that invalidated the sale of a slave because of (seriously) economic duress in the transaction, and —

– The Case of the Missing Mule reviews another 1843 opinion, this time about the theft of Mr. Herbert’s mule by a Comanche raiding party, and considers how the principles in it helped shape the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent opinion about whether much of Eastern Oklahoma is an Indian reservation.

The ABA House of Delegates has recently adopted a comprehensive set of best practices for litigation funding–an important topic in modern law practice.

Please check out my new podcast, Coale Mind, where once a week I talk about constitutional and other legal issues of the day. This forum lets me get into more detail than other media appearances, while also approaching issue from a less technical perspective than blogging and other professional writing. I hope you enjoy it and choose to subscribe! Available on Spotify, Apple, and other such services.

On pages 62-63 of the May 2020 issue of “D CEO” magazine, you can read a profile of me as the only Tarot-reading lawyer in Dallas–a skill first acquired on trips to New Orleans for appellate business!

The Committee for a Qualified Judiciary has published its list of Dallas-area judicial candidates found qualified.

An excellent recent article in Law360 summarizes the state of the sometimes-Byzantine structure of Texas’s intermediate appellate courts. The article is behind Law360’s paywall but my remarks are below:

Welcome to the new sister blog to 600Camp and 600Commerce from the appellate practice of Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst.

600Camp follows commercial litigation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 600Commerce does the same for Texas’s Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas, and 600Hemphill will cover commercial litigation in the Texas Supreme Court. Why the name? Click on “About“!