Despite the State Bar of Texas' suggestion to hold off on creating simple divorce forms, the Texas Supreme Court has decided not to halt the work of task force charged with creating forms that improve access to the courts for the poor.

Nearly five years into a legal battle over the constitutionality of Texas' $5-per-patron strip club fee, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to take up the adult entertainment industry's case against the state. 

The Texas Supreme Court turned back a challenge to the state's primary business tax, saying it doesn't violate a constitutional ban on personal income taxes.

A successful challenge to the state's primary business tax would throw lawmakers into special session to try to find enough money to pay for public schools, a lawyer for the state told the Texas Supreme Court today.

Austin lawyer and anti-affirmative-action advocate Steven Wayne Smith is planning a return to the Texas Supreme Court.

DAY 28 of our month-long series on the effects of new state laws and budget cuts: Under a new tort reform law, the Texas Supreme Court will make rules to expedite certain lawsuits and to allow judges to dismiss meritless ones early on. 

Judges are elected in Texas, but Gov. Rick Perry has picked the winners on the state's highest civil court almost without fail since he took office in 2000.

Organizations that provide legal services to those who can't afford them are quickly running out of money even as the need for their help is increasing, advocates said Wednesday at a press conference.

In October 2001, Marcos Guerra’s wife and three daughters laid him to rest at the cemetery in San Benito where members of his family had been buried for three decades. Almost four years later, they were at his graveside again, burying him a second time, after the cemetery moved his body without their permission and exhumed his remains. Now the family’s legal battle with one of the largest funeral services providers in North America, which has faced class-action lawsuits in several states, has reached the Texas Supreme Court — and is raising questions about the state’s regulation of after-life care.

Texas has the dubious distinction of being home to one of the busiest human trafficking routes in the country: the stretch of Interstate Highway 10 that runs from El Paso to Houston.

The Tribune's crack reporting staff — in Houston, Buda and other political hotspots — will be posting the latest news and spin the minute the polls close. Check back and refresh often for updates and photos from the field.

Is a hospital bed an integral part of medical care? As a federal judge considers the constitutionality of Texas’ 2003 medical malpractice reform — and Gov. Rick Perry campaigns for more lawsuit restrictions — the state Supreme Court has ruled that hospital injuries seemingly unrelated to doctor error can fall under Texas’ stringent medical malpractice caps. Some legal observers say the decision is a perversion of legislative intent, but tort reform advocates contend the high court simply closed a huge loophole in liability reforms.

Do two recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions have the far-reaching effects on Texas judicial elections that some in our legal community fear? Or do the state's current campaign finance laws adequately address the issues presented by both cases?

On the same day the Texas Supreme Court denied Judge Sharon Keller's request for intervention in her sanction from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, she has filed a second request to appeal the commission's decision. 

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct is taking on Judge Sharon Keller's appeal of its sanction.

Stiles' and Torres' three-parter on the changing Texas political map, Ramsey on questions about Brian Birdwell's voting history and residency, Aguilar on the Obama administration's immigration crackdown, Reed on hospitals that won't induce early labor, Stiles on what Troy Fraser left off his financial disclosure form, the latest installment of Hu's Face-Off video debate series, Grissom on the problem-plagued Driver Responsibility Program, Galbraith on the controversy over fracking and M. Smith's interview with former Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O'Neill: The best of our best from July 26 to 30, 2010.

Judge Sharon Keller says that in sanctioning her, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct “acted in a lawless, unconstitutional manner.”